Stargate Omniverse
by nestregge
Summary: Continuing SG-A, SG-1, SG-U. starts at SG-A S5-E20, follows canon. I'll show how, using tech the heroes gained in the shows, they can defeat any bad guy they encounter, without suddenly giving them huge battle ships or tech that ignores the laws of physics. I'm going to expand on all the loose ends. The shows were just the beginning of this story. (Please, Please, Please review.)
1. Chapter 1

Stargate Omniverse

Sheppard, leaning against the wall in the conference room of the SGC, was about ready to walk out. The room was full of IOA and military leaders from around the world, all screaming at each other over the super hive that had attacked just two days ago. This meeting was to decide the fate of Atlantis. The room was divided, the military personnel wanted to take the offensive and strike back at the Wraith. The IOA wanted to keep the city on Earth as protection. Coolidge had not said a word yet waiting for everyone to wear out, before standing and holding up a folder.

"This is a proposal from Colonel Sheppard that I believe everyone will be happy with. He outlines a detailed plan to protect Earth and attack the Wraith."

Everyone glanced at Sheppard then looked back to Coolidge. When he was sure he had everyone's undivided attention, he continued.

"The city will stay until repairs and upgrades are completed, which could take six months to a year, during this time copies of the Ancient database will be made to keep on earth for study. We will also be keeping most of the city's drones here on earth."

"Wait, wasn't the chair that controls those weapons destroyed at area 51?" The Chinese General asked.

"We are not sure yet, they are still assessing the damage. In any case it won't matter, Dr. McKay reported that the Lantean warship Tria's hyper-drive is irreparably damaged, so the control chair and any remaining drones will be brought to earth.

"We can't wait that long, we need to attack before they can create any more super hives!" The Russian General interrupted.

"They would need Zed-PM's to do that." Rodney said.

"And you are certain that they don't have anymore?" The General countered.

"Ye…..um. No." Rodney admitted.

"If I could continue!" Coolidge said and waited for the General to sit back down. "Once the Daedalus, Apollo, and the Sun Tzu return to Earth they will be repaired and equipped with the latest advancements, and a new weapon that Sheppard and his team have come up with, I'm at a loss, as to why we didn't think of this sooner…" Rodney hung his head in embarrassment. "…And then they'll be sent back to Pegasus to strike back at the enemy. We will make the Wraith regret the day they heard the name Earth!"

* * *

One month later on the bridge of the Daedalus, John, Ronon, Rodney, and Teyla were there to witness the test of the newest weapon of mass destruction created by man. A new missile code named the Reaper, a pair of Mk IX's packed in a warhead, propelled by a sub-light engine, so as not to leave a smoke trail, and equipped with a cloaking generator, reverse engineered from a goa'uld design.

The Daedalus emerged from hyperspace and cloaked.

"There is nothing on sensors sir, it looks like we beat them." Major Marks said.

"Good, prepare the weapon for launch." Caldwell ordered.

"Yes, sir." Marks answered then they waited.

"Rodney it's been ten minutes, are you sure we are at the right location?" John asked.

"Yeah, they'll be here any second."

Just then there was a beeping at Marks's station.

"Colonel Caldwell, we are picking up three contacts, a hive and two cruisers." Marks said.

"Lock on to the hive and fire when ready." Caldwell ordered.

"What about the cruisers?" Ronon asked.

"We don't have many of these missiles yet, so we have to save them for the hives. Once the hive is out of the way we'll use conventional weapons on the cruisers." Sheppard said.

"Target acquired, firing." Marks said.

They watched on the main display screen, a flashing dot leave the image of the Daedalus moving toward the image of the hive.

"As long as they don't detect it, it should strike the very center of the hive." Rodney said.

"Are there any indications that they can see it coming?" Caldwell asked.

"No sir, impact in five, four, three, two, one, impact." Marks said.

They shielded their eyes from the flash of light that seemed like a new star, before fading to black again.

"Report." Caldwell ordered.

"The radiation is interfering with sensors, but it looks like the hive and the cruisers have been vaporized." Marks said.

Everyone on the bridge was silent for few seconds, then burst into cheering and laughter with the unbelievable success of the test. Caldwell let his crew have the moment before putting them back to work.

"Ok, send a subspace burst to Earth informing them of our success."

"Yes sir." The communications officer answered.

"Colonel, will you be coming with us?" Caldwell asked Sheppard.

"No, as much as we would love to watch you destroy more hives, we have other things to do." Sheppard replied.

"Very well." Caldwell said as he pushed the comm button on his arm rest to the port fighter bay. "Gate controller." He called.

"Capt. Timms here sir." A voice called back.

"Is the Stargate calibrated?" Caldwell asked.

"Yes sir, as soon as we came out of hyperspace." Timms answered.

"Thank you Capt." Caldwell replied before releasing the comm button.

"Looks like you're good to go Sheppard, we should be joining you at the alpha site in about a week." Caldwell said.

"Good hunting Colonel." Sheppard said before he and his team left the bridge.

Ronon growled as he took his seat in the jumper.

"What's wrong with him?" Rodney asked John.

John looked at Ronon then back to Rodney. "He wants to stay and go Wraith hunting with Caldwell."

"Ah, I see." Rodney said.

"Dial the alpha site." Sheppard ordered as he moved the jumper in to position.

As Rodney punched the symbols to the alpha-site on the Puddle-jumpers D.H.D., the Stargate, a Pegasus model retrieved from what remained of the intergalactic gate bridge, was lowered by a great robotic arm. Pivoting ninety degrees from its place along the ceiling. Coming to a stop just inside the bay door.

"Don't worry Ronon there are plenty of Wraith out there." Sheppard said before taking the jumper through the gate.

* * *

A few days later Sheppard could barely contain his excitement as he and his team had finally gotten back to the work he loved, exploring new worlds. Cruising over one such world a few hundred meters above the ground, in a cloaked jumper. The Sun shining brightly over an area of small rolling hills with patches of trees and a lot of farms, he could see another primitive village. They were all small and separated by great distances. This is when he noticed something a little odd. "Rodney, how many people are down there?" Sheppard asked.

Rodney tapped a button on the dash to bring up the heads up display, which showed an image of the surface of the planet, as Rodney thought about the information he wanted to bring up, the image zoomed in to the continent they were over and lights popped up in the locations of the human villages with the status displayed in Ancient next to them. "Well, they are spread out all over this continent, but it looks to be approximately twenty thousand." Rodney answered.

"Okay, how many in the immediate area?" Sheppard asked as he turned the jumper into a circling pattern.

"Oh, um." Rodney focused on the H.U.D., the image zoomed in tighter to the village below them. "About fifteen hundred in this village." Rodney answered. "Why do you ask? Rodney asked wondering what he had missed that had gotten John curious.

"Well, I am no farmer but it seems like they are growing an awful lot of food for such a small village." Sheppard answered.

Rodney looked out the window and indeed saw that there was farmland as far as the eye could see, but he knew even less about farming. "I have no idea." He said.

"Teyla, you've done some farming, what do you think?" Sheppard asked.

She came forward to get a better look before answering. "Yes, I agree, that is far more than a village of fifteen hundred would need, perhaps they trade it to the other villages." She said.

Rodney thought this made sense and started to put it out of his mind.

"I thought that at first too, but every village we have flown over has had just as much." Sheppard said.

Teyla thought for a moment. "Well, maybe this planet has a very short growing season." She said.

Rodney focused on the H.U.D. again, the image changed to that of the solar system with information about the planets, displayed in Ancient, next to them. Rodney studied this for a minute, expecting to confirm Teyla's suspicion, but the mystery got even bigger. "No, according to this the planet would have a very long growing season, and a mild winter." He said.

"In that case they would be growing many times what they themselves would need." Teyla said with a look surprise and confusion on her face. "If they are trading with other worlds I would have expected to have heard of them before now."

"No kidding." Sheppard said." Look there." He pointed out a dirt road that they were coming upon. On the road there were three wooden wagons, over loaded with vegetables from a recent harvest, each wagon was being drawn by a pair of oxen-like creatures with a man to the side of each pair to keep them moving. "I think that must be it, those guys are headed towards the gate." Sheppard said as he turned the jumper in the direction of the village closest to the gate. "Let's find someone in charge and see if they will trade with us." He said.

Sheppard landed the jumper behind a small patch of trees that was about a kilometer from the village, to keep it out of sight so as not to alarm the natives. "Let's go." He said as he hit the button to open the rear hatch, then grabbing his P-90 before following Ronon, and Teyla out the back.

"Why do you insist on parking so far away?" Rodney whined as he drug his feet after Sheppard.

"Come on Rodney." John said faking irritation.

Sheppard and his team did their best to appear friendly, but as usual when they got closer to the village and were spotted by the inhabitants the reactions ranged from mild curiosity to running away in fear.

They walked to the center of town and waited for someone in charge to find them, and again as usual they didn't have to wait long. From a building that looked like it could be the town hall came a tall, skinny, white haired man. He was dressed in finer clothes then the rest of the villagers, signifying that he was a leader.

"Hello friends, I am Al' Lon, the town magistrate, how can I help you?" He asked in a soft cheerful voice as he approached them.

"Hello, I am Lt. Colonel Sheppard. This is Dr. McKay, Teyla, and Ronon." Sheppard said pointing to each in turn. "We're explorers, we travel through the Stargate to meet new people, exchange knowledge, and to establish trade."

"We are a simple people, I'm not sure what we have to offer travelers from another world." Al' Lon replied politely but with a hint of nervousness at them being there.

"We are sure you have what we need." Sheppard said confidently. "You see, we have friends all over this galaxy that live on worlds that have been hit hard by the Wraith, and are facing some tough winters. Well let's just say they could use some more food."

"Oh, I see." Al' Lon said with sympathy in his voice. "Um, we could probably spare a few wagon loads."

Sheppard and Teyla exchanged looks of confusion. Then Teyla had a thought.

"Surely you could do better than that." She said thinking that he was just trying to get a better deal, not realizing that they already knew of this world's abundance.

"No, I'm sorry, that is all we can give you." Al' Lon said with sincere regret in his eyes.

John, Teyla, and Ronon saw the concern on his face and knew that he was not bargaining. Rodney on the other hand.

"Don't be ridiculous, we have seen this world from the sky, we know you have mountains of food that you couldn't possibly use yourselves!" Rodney snapped.

"Rodney!" Teyla chided.

With a look, Sheppard ordered Ronon to reign Rodney in. Ronon nodded understanding then grabbed Rodney by the arm and pulled him back a step. Sheppard then looked back to Al' Lon. "I'm sorry about that, but he's right we know you have more than you need. Are you saying that it's all been spoken for by other worlds you trade with?" He asked.

Rodney tried to hide his embarrassment that he didn't consider this possibility.

"It's all right, I understand his feelings." Al' Lon said in a gentle tone. "It's true that we have bountiful crops, and we do trade with a few worlds, but most of it is for the Guardians."

"The Guardians?" Sheppard asked very curious now.

"The Guardians protect this world from the Wraith." Al' Lon said with a bit of hesitation that seemed to be out of place concerning that statement.

Teyla was the first to respond. "This whole world is safe from the Wraith?" She asked.

"Yes." Al' Lon said shortly. All cheeriness was gone now. He seemed to be very nervous now but there was something more they couldn't quite make out.

"How do these Guardians protect you from the Wraith?" Sheppard asked, thinking he knew the answer. Al' Lons behavior reminded him of another world they had visited. Where a group of humans, possessing the A.T.A. gene, lived high on the hog, in the central spire of what remained of an Ancient city. They used a control chair and drones to not only defend the planet from the Wraith, but to subjugate the working class.

"I don't know." Al' Lon said still reluctant to discuss it with them.

"Do they make life difficult for you, if you don't meet your quota, is that it?" Rodney asked as he looked around at the villagers. They all seemed to be happy and well fed.

"Oh no, they have never mistreated us." Al' Lon replied.

"Do the Guardians see all?" Rodney asked also remembering the other world, and thinking Al' Lon was afraid of offending the so called protectors.

Al' Lon, seeing that their curiosity was too great to drop the matter, decided to explain. "Why don't we go inside and get out of this hot sun." He offered as he led them to the building he had come out of a moment ago. They followed him up a couple stairs to the porch and through the double door. Once inside he led them to a large rectangular room with a long table running lengthwise through the space.

"This is the council chamber." Al' Lon said. "Have a seat." He offered indicating the chairs on the opposite side of the table from him.

"Thank you." Sheppard said as he and his team relaxed into their seats. He too thought that the old man was worried about who might be listening out on the street.

Al' Lon waited for them to be seated before taking his own. He took a deep breath before starting. "Like all worlds in this galaxy, this one too was preyed upon by the Wraith." He began. "Then the Guardians came, a little over three years ago, through the Stargate. They said they could stop the Wraith from ever culling this world again. All they asked for in return was that we provide them with food." Al' Lon said

"If they came through the gate how do you know they can keep their word?" Rodney asked thinking that these fools were just being duped.

"We didn't know for certain, not at first, and there were many of us that thought it might be a trick. But most thought it was too good to pass up, given that this world is so fertile and easy to farm, so we agreed to the deal. Then about two years ago a hive came, it appeared high in the sky one day. But, before it could do anything, flashes of light appeared around it, and then it burst into a great fireball. It flared like a new star for a few seconds then it was gone. After that, no one doubted their power." Al' Lon answered.

"So, no yellow lights that rise up out of the ground?" Sheppard asked a little disappointed.

"I don't understand." Al' Lon said confused.

"Never mind." Sheppard said.

"This is huge, it sounds like these Guardians have ships. Very powerful ships if they can destroy Wraith hives!" Rodney said excitedly.

"What I don't get, is why you didn't want to tell us this." Teyla said. "Do you not want to share the safety of this world with the rest of the humans in this galaxy?" She asked.

"No, that's not it." Al' Lon replied. He took another deep breath and started to say something more, but the words caught in his throat.

"What aren't you telling us?" Sheppard asked patiently.

Al' Lon looked to a type of grandfather clock against the wall at the end of the room. "Perhaps, it would be easier to show you?" He said as he stood. "They will be here soon to receive today's shipment." He added.

Al' Lon led them to the Stargate, stopping every so often to speak with his fellow villagers about a wide range of subjects ranging from the weather to preparations for an upcoming surprise party. After Thirty eight minutes of wandering the streets, they finally made it to the gate. As they drew near they saw the shipment that he had mentioned. Twenty wagons lined up for transport through the gate. They came to a stop at least a hundred meters from the gate. On the side of a hill, that allowed everyone in the gathered crowd an unobstructed view. Standing in the center of the group, Sheppard and his team noticed the villagers glancing at them nervously.

Luckily they only had to wait a few minutes, before the gate activated. When the event horizon settled, two men emerged from the puddle, walking side by side they continued away from the gate. They had only made two steps when another pair of men appeared, following the first two, and then another pair, and another, this continued until each column had twenty men in it, marching toward the wagons. They all wore the same black leather vest, black canvas pants, and tall black boots. Each man carried two silver, disk shaped objects, about ten centimeters across. The columns split going to either side of the train of wagons. When the first two men reached the end of the train, they placed their disks on the underside of wagon, one on each corner. Once the disks were activated they produced an anti-gravity field, causing the wagons rise up off the ground, a few inches.

Moments after the last two men had left the gate, another man appeared. The new man also had tall leather boots, but the rest of his clothing was very different, his pants were an elaborately decorated leather, his shirt a very fine silk, over this he wore a highly embroidered leather coat with a very tall collar. The fancy clothes were not the only thing to set this man apart, from those that came ahead of him. What really stood out was his snow-white hair, pulled back into a ponytail, and his greenish-white skin.

Sheppard and his team had barely seconds to see the Wraith step through the gate and look their way before…..something hit them from behind, a shock over loading their nervous systems, causing every muscle in their bodies to spasm for an instant, before their brains shutdown and everything went dark.

* * *

As consciousness returned, Sheppard could feel the familiar, pins-and-needles sensation, throughout his body. He opened his eyes to find himself, and the rest of his team, completely disarmed, and tied to chairs. They were back in the council room surrounded by villagers. Some of them were holding Wraith stun pistols. Sheppard grinned slightly when he noticed a couple of the men near Ronon, one had a freshly broken nose, and arm, and another man had a black eye swollen completely shut. Apparently they realized too late that one stun blast wouldn't take Ronon down. Which would explain why Ronon had been nearly cocooned to his chair with rope. Al' Lon was there, sitting in the same chair as earlier, on the opposite side of the table from them, and to his right sat the Wraith.

"Oh good, your awake." Al' Lon said when he saw Sheppard look his way. "How are you feeling?" He asked with true concern in his voice.

"You know, I could be better." Sheppard answered sardonically.

"Aaahhh." Just then Ronon, shot awake darting looks around the room, and straining against his bonds. He stopped his thrashing instantly, when the man with the broken nose tried to stun him again. He had been so startled by Ronon's sudden activity that he missed, and instead hit another man standing behind him. Everyone in the room looked down, at the stunned man, who had collapsed in a heap to the floor, then back to the man, shakily holding the stunner on Ronon. The room was silent for a few seconds, before the man next to him, gently took the stunner away, and escorted the skittish man from the room.

"I'm sorry about this Colonel, we had to make sure we could explain before you over reacted." Al' Lon said glancing at their weapons, and gear, sitting against the wall at the far end of the room.

"You're Wraith worshipers, what's there to explain?" Ronon said glaring at the Wraith.

"I assure you that is not the case" Al' Lon said calmly.

"Yeah, you could've fooled me." Ronon said still glaring at the Wraith.

"Colonel Sheppard, are you willing to listen?" Al' Lon asked ignoring Ronon.

Sheppard and Teyla exchanged a look before he responded. "It would seem that we don't have much of a choice." He replied, wiggling his arms, and pulling against the ropes, holding his wrists to the chair.

"Ah, yes." Al' Lon said as he looked to the unusual Wraith beside him, who then gave a slight nod. "If you promise to keep an open mind, I will have your bindings removed." He added.

"O—kay." Sheppard said very confused at this point, but knowing that even without their weapons these farmers would be no match for them.

"Good." Al' Lon said as he signaled the guards to release them.

Moments later Sheppard, Teyla, and Ronon were standing, and even though they had released Rodney, he was still fast asleep. His head leaning back, mouth open, and drool running down his cheek.

"It's all right, we don't have to wait for him." Sheppard said.

"Very well." Al' Lon started. "First of all, everything I told you earlier was true. I only left out one thing, for obvious reasons. The Wraith have been a scourge, on the humans of this galaxy, for countless generations. Telling people that there is a new group, which would be our saviors, isn't the easiest thing in the world." He added with a small grin, trying to ease their tension.

"He's a lying Wraith worshiper." Ronon spat, now glaring at Al' Lon.

"I am not a Wraith worshiper!" Al' Lon screamed vehemently, jumping to his feet, and slamming his fist on the table. He stood there a moment, breathing heavily, blood rushing to his face, and tears welling up in his eyes.

Ronon's face softened then, for the fierce rage with which he exploded at the accusation, showed them that, Al' Lon truly hated Wraith, even more than himself. "Who did you lose?" Ronon asked.

Al' Lon relaxed at the question, standing upright, and smoothing his shirt. "My wife and daughter, about fifteen years ago. A scouting party, they sent to remind us of their power." He answered, the tears now running down his face. He collapsed back into his chair, the grief stealing away his strength.

"Could somebody explain a couple things to me?" Rodney asked, having been woke by Al' Lon's outburst.

"Hey sleeping beauty, what do you want to know?" Sheppard cheerily trying to lighten the mood.

"Well, one, who is that guy sleeping on the floor, and two, why is there a Wraith here?" Rodney asked.

Seeing that Al' Lon was still too upset to speak, the Wraith stood up to take over. "I can answer that for you Dr. McKay, I am one of the Guardians that protects this world." He answered.

"What?" Ronon said incredulously.

The Wraith grinned slightly. "I will try to explain. As you know all the Wraith came out of hibernation a little over five years ago. Thinking that we had a new feeding ground, capable of sustaining us indefinitely, without the need to hibernate, but we failed to capture the city of the Ancients. Because of our early awakening, it wasn't long before we were fighting each other over feeding ground. We saw the end of our reign coming, we soon realized that to survive we needed an alternative. We put all our efforts into finding a way to allow us to eat regular food, and a little over three and half years ago, we succeeded." The Wraith paused allowing them time to absorb the revelation.

"You're telling us you can't feed on humans anymore?" Sheppard asked suspiciously.

"Not exactly, we still have the ability to feed on humans." The Wraith said holding up his feeding hand to show the feeding aperture. "But we don't feed on humans anymore." He added.

"How can we be sure of that?" Ronon asked.

"I can answer that." Al' Lon said having regained his composure. "We too, had a hard time believing their story. So, we had this one stay with us, for two years. We kept him under guard at all times, and gave him regular food. I can assure you that he did not feed on anyone or hibernate during that time."

Sheppard and his team exchanged looks with each other for a few seconds. Although they doubted what they were hearing, they could not figure out what the Wraith had to gain with this ruse.

Then Rodney had a thought. "If you made this discovery over three years ago, why haven't you shared it with all Wraith?" He asked.

"That's not as easy as it sounds." The Wraith started. "For most Wraith like their current feeding process, believing that without it they would be weaker, some are afraid that they would have no purpose, some feel that we should put more effort into finding earth." He paused a moment, to see if they understood, before continuing.

"We are trying, and we have converted some, but I fear, that until they are facing their end, and see that there's no other way, they won't accept the change. For now we keep ourselves hidden, and protect those that we can, while we increase our numbers."

"Maybe we can help speed up the process." Sheppard said, though he was far from convinced of their good intentions.

"How do you mean?" The Wraith asked.

"Well, we will need to speak to our people first, then we'll see." Sheppard replied, looking around at the guards still holding the stunners."

"Of course, you are free to go." The Wraith said, signaling the guards to stand down.

* * *

"Let me see if I have this straight, they stunned you, tied you up, told you a fairytale, and then just let you go?" Caldwell asked, sitting at the head of long plain table in the conference room of the alpha-site. The Daedalus had arrived a few hours earlier for resupply. They had destroyed another two hives and five cruisers.

"Pretty much." Sheppard answered.

"I take it, that you don't believe their story?" Caldwell asked.

"Well, we all agree that Al' Lon believed in what he was telling us, but we got the feeling, the Wraith was holding back. We asked for the address to the world they came from, and a blood sample, to confirm that they could survive on normal food, he said he would have to discuss it with his superiors." Sheppard answered.

"And so, you want to use the Daedalus, to try to find their home world?" Caldwell asked.

"Yes sir." Sheppard answered.

"Do have any idea of where this world is?" Caldwell asked.

"We think it has to be close to FP3-738, that's Al' Lon's world, we don't think they would want to spread themselves out to much." McKay said.

"It sounds like a guess." Caldwell said.

"Yeah, but it's a good guess." Sheppard said with a grin.

Caldwell thought for a moment before making a decision. "Okay, he said, I will take you along, but I have orders, any hives we come across will take priority. Caldwell said.

"We wouldn't have it any other way Colonel." Sheppard replied.

* * *

After two weeks, Caldwell was ready to throw them off his ship. He had orders to destroy hives, and McKay wanted to investigate every habitable world in their path.

"I'll give it until the end of the day." Caldwell said to Sheppard as he walked onto the bridge.

"What, that's not enough time." Rodney cried, as he turned from the computer terminal he was working at.

"I'm sorry Doctor, but they could be anywhere in this galaxy, I'll admit it was a good idea to check this area." Caldwell said.

"But." Rodney started. "It's fine." Sheppard interrupted. Rodney wasn't happy, but he agreed.

"Colonel Caldwell, long range scanners have just picked up a hive, approximately ten lightyears off our present course." Major Marks reported.

"Change course to intercept, drop us out of hyperspace before we get within their detection range." Caldwell ordered.

"Yes sir" Marks replied, and a minute later. "Reentering normal space, sir" He added.

"Activate cloak, and bring us to within weapons range." Caldwell ordered.

"Yes sir." Marks replied.

They had just about gotten to weapons range when. "Sir three ships have just uncloaked, and have begun firing on the hive." Marks reported.

Rodney ran back to the terminal he was using earlier. "Oh, this is weird, they look like Wraith cruisers, but they're about ten percent larger, they have a significantly higher energy output, and their weapons are three times more powerful than standard cruisers." He said.

"The hive is powering weapons, and returning fire." Marks said.

By now the Daedalus had gotten close enough for them to see the battle. They watched as the energy blasts from the hive were stopped short of their target.

"They have shields too?" Caldwell asked.

"Apparently." Rodney replied, in a stunned voice.

"Sir the hive is not going to last much longer." Marks said.

"Reverse course, take us out of range of the blast." Caldwell ordered.

They barely made it to a safe distance before the hive exploded. After the shock wave had passed, the three mystery ships opened hyperspace windows and were gone.

Everyone on the bridge was silent, not knowing what think of these new ships. Most of the younger crew members were looking to their commander for the answers. He could feel their eyes on him, they wanted to see that he wasn't afraid, but he had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, he had an idea of who those ships belonged to. He rubbed the back of his neck unconsciously. "Dr. McKay was it Wraith on those ships?" Caldwell asked.

Rodney had been busy going over the sensor readings of the three ships, specifically the life signs. He knew what Caldwell was concerned about. When he had his answer, he looked at the commander, and with sympathy in his voice. "Yes, it was Wraith, but there was something else too." He answered.

Caldwell just closed his eyes, and hung his head, for he knew what the something was.

"What is it?" Sheppard asked.

Rodney looked at him and said. "Goa'uld."


	2. Chapter 2

This chapter is still very rough.

* * *

"How did Goa'uld get to Pegasus?" Sheppard asked.

"Because of Me!" Caldwell answered, clenching his fist. "I was host to one for months, during that time, he had the opportunity to learn everything there is to know about this ship, and pass it on to Ba'al." He added.

"Which, included the intergalactic hyper-drive." McKay said. "We didn't know if Ba'al had ever used the knowledge, since all his ships back in the Milky Way, which were seized by the Jaffa, still had interstellar hyper-drives instead of intergalactic. He added.

"Well, obviously he was able to upgrade some of his ships, but why come to Pegasus?" Teyla asked.

"Maybe, He thinks that by saving the humans of this galaxy, he can get them to worship him." Maj. Marks said.

"Yeah, but I think there's got to be more to it than that." Sheppard replied.

"Whatever his motives were in coming here, we have a big problem." Rodney said.

"Oh, you think?" Sheppard said sarcastically.

"I don't think you fully understand, Colonel." Rodney said ignoring the insult. "When the Goa'uld came to this galaxy, and took Wraith as hosts, they didn't just get superior physical abilities, they also gained all their knowledge, and apparently they have already successfully combined Goa'uld, and Wraith technology. Those ships may have started out as Wraith cruisers, but now they are far more advanced."

"What's the problem?" Ronon asked. "They're killing Wraith, seems like their doing us a favor." He added, only half joking.

"I know you don't have much experience with the Goa'uld, so I'll explain why they're a problem." Caldwell said in a cold voice. "Yes, for now they're killing Wraith, but no matter how much they claim it's for the benefit of the humans. I promise you, it's for no other reason than to help themselves. If they get a strong enough hold on this galaxy, they'll absorb or destroy the Wraith, then they'll enslave all the humans they've deceived into thinking of them as saviors."

"The Wraith, feed on humans because they have to, in order to live. The Goa'uld, delight in having us worship them, they revel in making slaves of us, and they torture and kill us for the pleasure it gives them. They're pure evil."

"Uh….Okay, so what should we do about it?" Was all Ronon said, seeing that he struck a nerve with Caldwell, he understood that kind of hatred.

"First thing, we need to report this to Earth." Sheppard said.

* * *

Two weeks ago.

The Wraith waited for Sheppard and his team to leave through the stargate, before using it himself, to keep them from seeing the address he dialed. As soon as the gate settled he rushed through. He stepped out, on to a scorching desert world. To spend as little time as possible he quickly pulled a wrist device from one of the large pockets on his coat. He had hidden it there, from the Tau'ri, it had been modified to accommodate the long fingernails of their new hosts. Once he had it on, he tapped a control on the back side, which activated the transporter beam of Ba'al's command ship, which was in orbit.

He hurriedly walked the long corridors of the new ship, which was by far the largest ship ever created by the Goa'uld or Wraith. A perfect merging of the two, by its self the organic nature of Wraith tech had some weaknesses, but combined with the superior energy production capabilities of the Goa'uld, they were able to grow a ship in a very short time, with abilities that surpassed anything made by either alone.

He passed many other Goa'ulded Wraith, going about their own duties, on his way to the Pel'tak. As he entered the command and control center, he was stopped by a pair of the new kull warriors, which used the Wraith soldiers, instead of the engineered humans, as hosts for the programmable symbionts.

"Let him pass." Ba'al ordered.

When the kull warriors moved aside, he moved forward and bowed before Ba'al, who had also taken a Wraith host.

"Report Ra'Zon." Ba'al commanded.

"My lord, we have been discovered." Ra'Zon started. "A group of Tau'ri came to one of our farming planets today. I did my best to convince them, that we are only Wraith wanting to coexist with humanity." He stopped.

"Did they believe you?" Ba'al persisted.

"I don't believe so." Ra'Zon admitted, fearing punishment for the failure.

"Ha-ha" Ba'al laughed. "It had to happen eventually, we've had four years to ourselves, and we've prospered much in those years. Signal the fleet, it's time to share our good fortune with the rest of the galaxy.

* * *

One day after learning the Goa'uld were in Pegasus.

Sheppard and his team, having returned to FP3-738, were in the counsel room waiting to speak with Al'Lon. Sheppard and Teyla were sitting on the edge of the table, Rodney was in a chair working on his computer, Ronon seemed to be relaxed sitting in a chair with his foot up on the table. But, Sheppard and Teyla knew he didn't trust these people after their last visit, he positioned himself: back to the wall, so he could see every door to the room, his right hand resting on his weapon.

They only had to wait a few minutes before Al'Lon entered the room.

"Col. Sheppard, Teyla, Ronon, Dr. McKay," He greeted them smiling, "You're all looking well."

Before they said anything, McKay, checked Al'Lon with one of the Ancient hand held scanners for the presence of a symbiote. He held the device up to him for a moment, then looked to Sheppard, "He's clear."

"Clear of what?" Al'Lon asked.

"Um . . . We'll get to that in a minute," Sheppard said.

"Very well, It has been a while, I trust you have spoken to your leaders, have they reached a decision?" He asked.

"Well, we have something to tell you about the Guardians," Sheppard started, not knowing how to explain a snake that could possess people. "You see, we wanted to learn more about them, so we decided to try and find their home world." He said, then waited to see Al' Lon's reaction.

"Did you find it?" Al'Lon asked, he didn't seem to be surprised or upset.

"Um . . . no, but we did come across a few ships of theirs, which we were able to get some very detailed scans of, while they were destroying a Wraith hive," Sheppard said.

"You discovered that they're Goa'uld!" Al'Lon said with a hint of fear in his voice.

Sheppard and his team sat staring at him in stunned silence for a second. "You already knew?" Sheppard asked.

"Yes, they told us the truth from the beginning," Al'Lon answered. "We don't get many visitors here so we haven't perfected the method of explaining the situation to others, but the Guardians want to protect all that they can. When new people arrive we subdue them and normally tell them the truth, but when Ra'Zon realized who you were, he told us of your world's prejudice toward his kind. He was afraid you would kill him when you found out, so we kept that one detail to ourselves."

"Who is Ra'Zon?" Teyla asked.

"That's the name of the Goa'uld that conquered the Wraith you saw before. He's why that Wraith doesn't feed on humans anymore," Al'Lon answered. "We hoped to keep the truth from you long enough to show that they're not the evil you believe they are. But, now that you know the truth, have you come to kill him?" He asked.

"We came to warn you!" Rodney blurted. "The Goa'uld are very evil: they claimed to be gods in order to enslave humans, to serve and worship them, to fight for them, and to take as hosts."

Al'Lon grinned as he slightly shook his head from side to side. "They told us that is what you believed," He said. "They explained their side of the story, and they understand why you might think as you do."

"What is their side of the story?" Sheppard asked.

"They explained their dependence on hosts, they can't live without one, it's something they can't change. And so they chose to use creatures from their home world of very low intelligence."

"They learned to use the Stargate and began to explore the Galaxy. Their technology advancing to the point that when they met humans for the first time they were thought to be gods. Because, the humans were so primitive, they didn't see the harm in letting them think this for a while. They admit that this is where they made their biggest mistake. They saw in humans an intelligence that matched their own, and realized that by working together they could create a great civilization. Both prospered for thousands of years. Then the humans of your world began to realize that the Goa'uld weren't gods, and thinking they had been purposefully misled so they could be used as slaves, they rebelled against their Goa'uld protectors, driving them away. Though they left your world in peace, they feared that humans on other worlds would react the same way if they learned the truth, so they decided to play the role of gods. They admit, this was their second biggest mistake. For this led to a number of other problems, one of the biggest of which was holy wars, and then when your world learned to operate the Stargate and saw them claiming to be gods, it appeared to be as your ancestors feared. So you set to work to free humanity, going from planet to planet convincing everyone that the Goa'uld were just using them as slaves. You even turned the Jaffa, to whom they had entrusted their young, against them. After thousands of years of coexisting with humans guiding, teaching, and protecting them, you drove them from the galaxy. And though they were saddened by this, they felt this was the best way to fix their mistakes. For, the Jaffa are united, and none believe in false gods anymore," Al'Lon explained.

"And now, after learning of our need, they have come to help us," Al'Lon continued. "They had planned to wait a little longer before moving against the Wraith, but now that you know they're here, they need to show the humans of this galaxy that they only want to help."

"So their saying it was just a misunderstanding?" Sheppard asked.

"They wanted you to know that they hold no malice toward you. They understand that it was their mistakes that caused the conflict and forgive you for the Goa'uld deaths and truly regret the human lives that were lost," Al'Lon said.

"That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard!" Rodney shouted, but so exasperated that that was all he could say.

Sheppard and his team spent an hour going back and forth with Al'Lon trying to explain the truth to him, but the Goa'uld had done a superb job convincing them of their benevolence. Sheppard was just starting to think that Al'Lon's opinion of the Atlantis expedition was influenced by more than what the Goa'uld had told him. A moment later his suspicions were confirmed when the door at the end of the room flew open, and a finely dressed woman burst in. "Enough of this, I don't what to hear any more of your lies!" Shiana of Santhal yelled. (S5 E13, Inquisition) "You may have convinced the Goa'uld, the humans your galaxy, and most of the humans of this galaxy that your motivated by a sense of honor and a desire to help those in need, but I know better!

* * *

"The Goa'uld have actually convinced the people of that planet that they're good guys?" Brig. Gen. Shilin, the new commander of the Pegasus alpha-site, asked.

"Yes, we tried telling them the truth, but the Goa'uld are master liars, they claim it was just a misunderstanding." Sheppard answered. "They don't deny the events, the differences in their story is the motives, or who was giving the orders. . . After arguing until my throat was sore, I realized the main reason they're buying this story, these people have been terrorized by the Wraith for ten thousand years, and now these aliens show up with the power to stop it,-they want to believe it!"

"Well, they aren't stopping there, we've received reports from over twenty worlds so far, that they've been visited by representatives of the Goa'uld. Their telling everyone the same story you heard on FP3-738, that they're here to free them from the Wraith. On four of these worlds, they timed their arrival to coincide with Wraith culling's, they wait until the darts are launched, so the people are in a panic, then they uncloak, destroy the hive, launch their own fighters, and beam down ground troops. The battle is over in minutes, but they put on a big show of force," Shilin said.

"So they truly appear to be saviors," Teyla said.

"Exactly," Shilin replied.

"What kind of ground troops are we talking about?" Sheppard asked. "From what I've read about the Goa'uld, they wouldn't get their hands dirty that way."

"Yes, I was just getting to that. From what we gather, their using Kull warriors, and . . . Hybrids," Shilin answered, then waited for them to absorb this news.

"Hybrids! Michaels Hybrids?" Teyla asked.

"It would seem so," Shilin answered. "We think they're to replace the Jaffa."

"Do you mean "snake in the stomach" replace?" Sheppard asked.

"We're not sure," Shilin answered. "That's something we need to find out."

"Oh, we are screwed!" Rodney said.

"Let's not overreact, Rodney," Sheppard chided.

"Again, I don't think you're getting it. If they are, using Hybrids as a Jaffa, then the way we beat them in the Milky Way, is not going to work this time. We won't be convincing them to turn against their masters, since they're telepathically controlled and don't have free will," Rodney said.

"In any case, we need to get better Intel," Shilin said. "We still haven't found any of their bases, but we do know that a group of their missionaries are scheduled to meet with the people of MM1-832, today. The Daedalus is en route, your orders are to join them, and proceed to the planet where you will capture the Wraith and at least one Hybrid."

"Yes, sir," Sheppard replied. "When will the Daedalus be dialing in?" He asked.

"At Fourteen hundred hours," Shilin answered.

"Hmm, that gives you a whole twenty minutes to get something to eat, Rodney," Teyla said grinning.

"Ha-ha, very funny," Rodney said, pretending like food wasn't the only thing he could think of at the moment, but just then his stomach betrayed him by sounding a very loud growl. He held his composure, until.

"Nineteen minutes," Teyla said.

Rodney, giving in, jumped from his chair, and ran to the mess hall.

Nineteen minutes later, Sheppard and his team were in the control room, waiting for the Daedalus to dial in. And right at Fourteen hundred, the Stargate activated, as soon as the puddle settled a familiar voice came over the radio.

"Daedalus to Alpha-site, are you receiving?" Col. Caldwell asked.

"Yes, Colonel we hear you," Gen. Shilin answered. "And, Col. Sheppard's team is ready to go."

"Very well, we are sending our gate coordinates now," Caldwell said.

"So they have to drop out of hyper-space and calibrate the Stargate to their current location and then send us the coordinates every time?" Ronon asked.

"Exactly," Rodney answered. "It takes some time, but the benefits of having a gate permanently placed on the ship far outweigh the hassle."

"Transmission received," The Comm. Officer said, and then the gate shut down.

"You have a go Colonel," Shilin said.

* * *

Sheppard and his team were on the bridge as the Daedalus emerged from Hyper-space, then cloaked, and went into geosynchronous orbit above the target planet.

"Our screens are clear, sir," Maj. Marks said. "We're not detecting any other vessels in the area."

"All right, scan the surface for Wraith-Goa'uld and Hybrid life signs," Caldwell ordered.

"Yes, sir," Marks answered, as he handled the controls of his station; then waited for the sensors to complete the scan. "Confirmed: One Wraith-Goa'uld, eight Hybrids, and two Kull warriors. They're still in the town."

"The Kull warriors?" Caldwell asked.

"Inconclusive: our sensors can't penetrate their armor," Marks answered.

"Looks like, we'll need to go down there," Caldwell said. "Colonel, are you ready to go?"

"Yes, sir," Sheppard answered. "Okay, this should be fairly simple. The Daedalus will beam us down, we'll take up position, near the gate. Then-we wait."

Luckily, the Stargate had plenty of large vegetation around it, they could use for cover. After an hour and a half, they finely received a call from the two Marines stationed just outside the town. Informing them that the targets where headed for the gate, and their formation: a single Kull was at point; just behind him came the Hybrids in two columns; the Wraith-Goa'uld followed a few steps behind them, he had four human servants around him; and bringing up the rear was the second Kull.

"Oh, it's about time," Rodney whined.

"Shush, Rodney," Sheppard said, as he checked that the eight Marines that he had with him and his team were ready. They were hidden in the bushes, along the outside corner of the road: where it made a nearly ninety degree turn.

It would have been easy, to just beam the targets to the ship, but they needed to answer an important question, which is what Sheppard was tasked with: while the others would focus on the Hybrids and Wraith, he was only concerned with the Kull warriors.

Minutes later, they could hear the clop of boots, coming up the path. They waited for them to pass completely before Sheppard, fired three shots in rapid succession, into the back of the rear Kull warrior, with the weapon designed specifically to fight them. The tall soldier stopped in his tracks, and for a split second he stood there, then slowly it began to turn around as if nothing was wrong with it.

"Oh, shi—"Sheppard began to say, but Rodney had already called for beam out. When the light faded, he found himself, along with his team and the marines, on the Daedalus in the brig. In the center of the room stood the Wraith-Goa'uld and two Hybrids. They quickly disarmed them and secured each in their own cells.

When that was done, Sheppard went to the bridge.

"Well, Col. Did it work?" Caldwell asked.

"No, sir," Sheppard answered. "It didn't faze him in the least. It's a safe bet that their using Wraith hosts for the Kull warriors as well."

An hour later, after the medical personnel had taken a multitude of genetic samples, it was time to speak to their prisoner.

John, found all three sitting on the benches in their cells.

"I am Col. Sheppard," He introduced himself, but didn't expect any response.

"I am very pleased to meet you, I am Khafra," He said. "How can we help you?"

"Why did the Goa'uld come to the Pegasus galaxy?" Sheppard asked.

"Once we learned of the humans in this galaxy, and how they were being terrorized, we couldn't stand by and do nothing," Khafra said, with a very sincere smile.

"No; we know that's what you've been telling everyone, but what's the truth?" Rodney asked.

"That is the truth," Khafra said without a hint deception.

"From what I've heard: You guys love to gloat about your evil plans," Sheppard said.

Khafra ignored that, and though they spent hours questioning him, they got nothing. He was very different from the Goa'uld in the Milky Way: He didn't act superior to them in any way. Quite the opposite, in fact: he was polite and patient.

* * *

"We're almost in range, sir," Maj. Marks said to Col. Caldwell. After they had dropped Sheppard and his team along with the prisoners to the alpha-site, they had gone out Goa'uld hunting. They were approaching a battle; a hive was trying to cull the humans on the planet below, when three Wraith-Goa'uld cruisers de-cloaked and opened fire.

"Good, prepare a Reaper missile for launch, target the center of the hive, and fire as soon as we get in range," Caldwell ordered. "The blast should take out all four ships."

"Yes, sir," Marks answered as he worked his controls. "Target acquired,"-he held his finger over the button to fire, until the ship was in range, "firing."

Because the Reaper was cloaked, they had to be content with a simulation of the missiles progress to the target or a simple countdown. For the Reaper couldn't send back telemetry, they could still send signals to abort or change target, but the Reaper didn't send signals out.

The hive and cruisers continued their battle, seemingly unaware of the approaching doom. Marks began a countdown at "five—four—three-somethings wrong, the cruisers have ceased fire and are opening hyper-space wi-they're gone, sir."

"Wha-," Caldwell began. But right then the Reaper hit its target, vaporizing the hive in a blinding flash of light. "What happened?" Caldwell asked when the light faded and they could see again. "Did they see it coming?"

Marks looked over his screens before answering. "They must have, sir, there aren't any other contacts in the area, and that hive was far from done for," he said.

* * *

A couple weeks later, back at the alpha-site. Sheppard and his team were in a meeting to discuss the situation with the Goa'uld.

"Colonel, have you gotten anything out of our prisoner?" Brig. Gen. Shilin asked.

"No, I haven't gotten anywhere with him," Sheppard began. "He doesn't behave like any Wraith I've met, nor any Goa'uld I've read about. He doesn't even act like a prisoner, more like a visiting dignitary. No matter what I do, he continues to have the attitude that we're best friends, talking about the weather. He hasn't even asked to be released, not once."

"Why does that bother you?" Rodney asked. "It's not like we would."

"No, but that's what captured Wraith and Goa'uld normally do: they demand to be released," Sheppard said. "It makes me think that, maybe, he wanted to be captured."

"For what reason?" Shilin asked.

"I don't know," Sheppard answered. "We did check them for sub-space transmitters; all three were clean," He added.

"Well, stay on top of it," Shilin said, then he decided to move on. "What have you learned, Doctors?" Shilin asked, looking at Drs. Beckett and Keller.

"Well the first thing on everyone's mind is: "do they need to feed on Humans?" Carson started. They don't, but it's not a permanent change, if the Goa'uld symbiote were removed then the Wraith would revert to its normal feeding process,"

"I thought the Goa'uld were vain about their appearance," Rodney said. "Why would they want to take Wraith hosts?" He asked.

"They gained a lot more than just technology," Keller began." In order for the Goa'uld to take a new species as host, they need to make themselves compatible. The normal way of doing this, which doesn't always work, is to get the D.N.A. of the new host and incorporate it into their young. But, in the case of our prisoner, it looks like they used a gene therapy to add the Wraith D.N.A. to an already mature symbiote. This could also explain why the usual questioning techniques aren't working."

"How do you mean?" Sheppard asked.

"The Wraith are very patient, and feel no need to explain themselves," Keller said. "This could have been passed to the Goa'uld, tempering their personalities."

"That's just great!" Sheppard said. "I mean, that was their biggest weakness, revealing their plans in order to rub our noses in it."

"I'm afraid it's worse than just that Colonel," Beckett said. "These new Goa'uld are far superior to the ones we're used to. Their immune systems are stronger, they can heal their hosts faster than before; and now, they don't age, they really could live forever. Combine that with a host that has those same abilities, and you have a creature that's very; very hard to kill. It's easy to see why they would want Wraith hosts.

"It also represents a significant threat," Sheppard said.

"What about the Hybrids?" Shilin asked.

"They do appear to be Michael's Hybrids; how the Goa'uld got ahold of his research, I couldn't say," Carson began. "In any case, they've been adapted to carry a larval Goa'uld, they are indeed, a new Jaffa. However, the pouch opening is not the big X shape seen on the Milky Way Jaffa, instead it's the belly-button modified. And again, they're a big step up from the Milky Way type: stronger, faster, their senses are more acute, they don't age, and their immune system and regenerative abilities are much greater. And, they're not dependent on the symbiote."

"You mean, they could function without one?" Sheppard asked.

"Yes, I'm guessing: that because the Hybrids would be controlled telepathically, the Goa'uld didn't feel they needed that safeguard," Carson said.

"Wait, in the Milky Way they used Humans as hosts and Jaffa, why not make Wraith Jaffa?" Shilin asked.

"Oh, I doubt they could be controlled that way," Carson answered.

"Okay, thank you, Doctors," Gen. Shilin said. "Colonel Ellis, what do you have for us?"

Col. Ellis stood, looking very tired. The Apollo and Sun Tzu had joined the search for the Goa'uld, five days ago, after their repairs and upgrades were completed. Which, had shaved travel time between Earth and Pegasus from eighteen days to two weeks. "Unfortunately, sir, all I have is more bad news," Ellis began. "The Goa'uld: taking advantage of the Wraith civil war, have hit fast, and hit hard; with a series of ambush attacks, catching them when they start to cull. They must be able to track them while they're in Hyper-space, same as us. Picking them off one at a time, they've inflicted massive devastation with little to no resistance. At last count, they have destroyed or captured: seven hives, twenty two cruisers, and nine Wraith labs. We estimate, that at this rate, they will completely wipe out the Wraith within one year."

"Why is that bad news?" Jennifer Keller asked.

"I don't think anyone's going to lose sleep over some dead Wraith," Caldwell began. "However, as soon as they finish with them, they'll most likely come for us. I'm betting that they don't have that many ships yet, that's why they haven't attacked us. At the moment our ships are still more powerful than these new Wraith-Goa'uld combos, but in a year they'll have enough ships to easily overwhelm anything we could muster."

"Oh," Keller said thoughtfully glancing at Dr. Beckett.

"So, we need to deal with them now," Rodney said.

"Yes, we would love to, but there's just one problem, we can't find them!" Col. Ellis said. "We have no clue as to where their bases are, and their ships stay cloaked while in normal space, and apparently they found a way to keep us from detecting them in hyper-space, so we can't track them. The closest we've come was a few days ago: the Sun Tzu arrived seconds after they destroyed a hive. The Sun Tzu tried to attack the Wraith-Goa'uld cruisers, but was ignored, they just entered Hyper-space and left. It's obvious at this point that they can both, detect us though our cloak and track us while we're in Hyper-space."

"That's possible," Rodney said. "The super hive showed us that if given enough power, Wraith tech can see though a cloak."

"I don't know how we can stop them," Ellis continued. "This is one time that, "The enemy of my enemy is NOT my friend." Since we can't find them, the only way to keep them from achieving their goals, would be to protect the Wraith, and we can't do that as long as they feed on humans."

"What-if they didn't need to anymore?" Keller asked.

"What, feed on humans?" Sheppard asked.

"Yes," Keller answered.

"How?" Sheppard asked. "Did you perfect your gene therapy?"

"No," She answered. "However, Dr. Beckett and I think that we can use what we've learned from our prisoner, to modify our gene therapy to just activate the Wraith digestive system. Now, this wouldn't take away their ability to feed on humans, just give them another option."


	3. Lagrangian 3

In this chapter I have introduced a lot of new ideas, which is just the tip of the iceberg. If you see anything you recognize, please let me know where you saw it. I would like to check it out.

* * *

"Alright, turn it off," Keller said to the technician that monitored the Wraith in the Atlantis stasis pod.

He didn't say anything as he worked the controls to bring Todd out of hibernation. Which is where he was put to prevent his starvation.

As the pod began to revive its occupant, two Marines standing behind Keller, raised their new sidearms: an earth made energy weapon, that most resembled a Travelers stun pistol, but with a slightly shorter barrel. By using a combination of Goa'uld, Asgard, and Traveler technologies, it provided the weapon with three settings: the first being a stun, the second was kill, and the third was disintegrate.

When the pod finished the reanimation cycle, Todd looked around to get his bearings as the fog left his head. "What's-," was all he could say before both Marines fired their stunners. Todd began to fall to the floor, but was caught by two large orderlies who picked him up and placed him on a gurney.

Keller didn't waste any time, as soon as he was secured she stepped up and injected him with the newest gene therapy. "Okay, take him to isolation," She said.

Sheppard, Rodney, Ronon, and Teyla having returned to Atlantis to assist Drs. Beckett and Keller, watched as the first test subject was wheeled out. They all returned to Earth via the alpha-site Stargate, which had been equipped with an extra control crystal, needed to make an intergalactic connection, and powered by a mark III naquadah generator.

"How long until he wakes up, Doc?" Sheppard asked Keller.

"We're going to keep him sedated throughout the process, so we can monitor the changes and watch for side effects. We should know if it's going to work in twenty four hours," she answered.

"Good, that should give us some time to catch up on some work here in the city. But first, it's finally operational, do you want to go check it out?" Rodney asked.

"Check what out?" Ronon asked.

"You'll see," Sheppard said, smiling.

* * *

"We could just beam over," Rodney said as they approached a smooth grey ship.

"I know, but I want to try out the new Hyper Jumper, get a feel for what she can do" Sheppard said as they walked up the ramp of the Tau'ri made vehicle, and made their way to the cockpit from the rear of the craft. This new machine was very similar to the Ancients gate ships, as far as their physical dimensions, though it was fifty percent longer.

"I can tell you, exactly, what it can do," Rodney said after they had all taken their seats: Sheppard and Rodney in the front two chairs, and Ronon and Teyla in the two directly behind.

"It's just not the same," Sheppard said.

"How can this thing fit though the Stargate?" Ronon asked, looking out the side window at the large wing like stucture near the back end: which held a sub-light engine at its base, and various weapons extending out toward the end.

"With the help of the Goa'uld tech, which allows their machines to shape shift, the wings fold up and move to the very back," Rodney answered.

Sheppard sat holding the controls for a second before asking, "Why isn't it turning on, Rodney?"

"Oh, sorry, we haven't been able to reproduce the Ancients mental control system, yet," Rodney answered pointing to a switch.

"How primitive," Sheppard said jokingly as he turned the switch that activated the mark III naquadah generator that powered the ship. He worked the controls and the craft floated off the deck of Atlantis and started to move forward. He cloaked the ship just before they left the cloaking field of the city. Once they were a safe distance, he really opened her up: testing the acceleration, maximum speed and maneuverability in atmosphere, before doing the same in the vacuum of space. "You have outdone yourself, Rodney. This is just as maneuverable as a Puddle Jumper, but much faster. What's its top speed?" He asked.

"Twenty five percent of the speed of light, that's about ten times faster than the Puddle Jumper," Rodney answered.

"And what's the range of the Hyperdrive?" Sheppard asked.

"A maximum of fifty light-years, then the capacitor needs to be recharged," Rodney answered. "It also has an Asgard transport beam and shield."

"We are definitely taking one of these back to Pegasus with us," Sheppard said.

"Where're we going?" Ronon asked, noticing that they were not heading back to Earth.

"The L Three station," Rodney said. "It's on the opposite side of the sun from the Earth, in the third Lagrangian point."

"You built it in space?" Teyla asked.

"Not exactly," Rodney answered. "Some years ago, Anubis tried to destroy Earth with an asteroid. SG-1 was sent to blow it up, but when they got there they discovered that the core was made of nearly weapons grade naquadah. If they had used the nuke, it would have vaporized the planet. At the last second they opened a Hyperspace window big enough for the entire asteroid, allowing it to bypass the earth and continue away from the solar system. Later, we used the Prometheus to set it in a stable orbit in the Earth's L three position."

"Why use that particular asteroid?" Teyla asked.

"Because, except for the seven hundred trillion metric tons in that asteroid, naquadah doesn't exist in this solar system," Rodney answered.

"We should really send Anubis a fruit basket, to thank him," Sheppard said.

* * *

An hour later they could see their destination, other than its size, one hundred thirty seven kilometers in length, it was an unremarkable, potato-shaped rock.

"It's not much to look at, from this side," Rodney said. "We set it up to be tidally locked, and put the base on the dark side."

Sheppard flew them to the dark side, above a large crater approximately twenty kilometers in diameter and started to descend, keeping the nose of the craft pointed at the surface of the asteroid.

"Where is it?" Ronon asked.

"Oh, it's cloaked," Rodney answered. "You know the military, taking every precaution they can."

As soon as they passed though the cloaking field, Sheppard brought the vehicle to a stop. "Wow, no wonder it took so long to get this thing done," Sheppard said.

"You have no idea," Rodney said, with a small laugh.

Below them was a short glass dome covering the entire crater. What they saw beneath the dome was not what they expected: almost half of the area was rainforest, grass lands took up about three eighths, and a lake covered the rest. On the grass land they could see a herd of cattle.

"Is that to produce the oxygen for the base," Teyla asked.

"No, the Biosphere is for recreation and for the fresh meat, there're fish in the lake too," Rodney answered. "The base was designed to be completely self-sufficient. The actual ship yard is over there," He said pointing to the side of the dome at a massive rectangular door, two kilometers in length. This too was built by taking advantage of the natural topography of the asteroid, being set over a large crevasse running away from the crater. Between the dome and the door was the command and control tower.

Sheppard decloaked the ship and called to the tower. "L Three station this is Hyper Jumper one, come in."

"Hyper Jumper one, we're receiving and we have you on our screens, go ahead," the comm officer replied.

Sheppard requested and was granted permission to land in the small bay at the base of the tower.

Where the commander of the facility met them. "Hello, Col. Sheppard, Dr. McKay, Ronon, Teyla it's good to meet you, I am Maj. Gen. Patricia Espersen," She said. "How can I help you?"

"We're just here for the tour," Sheppard said, smiling at the thin blonde woman.

"It would be my pleasure, Colonel, follow me," She said, leading them from the hangar bay.

"We better make it fast," Rodney said, looking at his watch. "We only have a few hours."

"Okay," she said. "We'll skip over the boring areas then."

The first section she took them through was the living quarters and the medical bay, which were in the wall of the crater, with windows that gave a view of the biosphere. "We used Tok'ra tunneling crystals to excavate hundreds of square kilometers," Espersen said.

She took them through quickly, just showing them the highlights before moving on.

The next section was the recreation areas which included: various sports arenas, a low grav gymnasium, and the biosphere. Which she took them to explore in an anti-grav vehicle. Along the inside of the dome was an artificial sun that ran on a track from one side to the other, to simulate the day night cycle. During the night it travel back to the starting position. Sheppard noticed that most of the trees in the rain forest were over thirty feet tall, and their roots had spread out quite a bit. In fact everywhere he looked, nothing appeared as if it had just been planted.

"Okay, what's going on here?" Sheppard asked. "There's no way you built all this with the time you had."

"I was waiting to see how long it would take you figure that out," Rodney said, grinning. "Once we learned of the Goa'uld in Pegasus and the threat they posed; the president gave the order and they activated the device."

"Ah, that's what I thought," Sheppard said.

"What device?" Teyla asked.

"A time dilation device," Sheppard answered. "So they just used it to speed up completion of this place?"

"Yeah, but they did make some improvements to the original design over the years," Rodney answered.

"How many years are we talking about," Ronon asked.

"All added up, from the start of construction to finish, about thirty eight." Rodney answered.

"Did the people working here stay the whole time?" Teyla asked.

"Some did, but most would rotate. They would work for one year, which would be one day, normal time. Then turn off the dilation field for resupply and to change crews. A lot of the people would go back quite often, since they got paid for the time spent in the field," Rodney said.

"Are they going to use that to build ships faster?" Ronon asked.

"Only in emergencies, but that is why this place has to be self-sufficient, so that if Earth is attacked, this place could function indefinitely without the need for assistance. However, currently it's not fully ready for that: it's short on materials and personnel," Rodney answered.

A few minutes later their guide was leading them to one of the many transporters, which were similar to the ones on Atlantis, though a bit larger. They stepped into a small room and a diagram of the facility appeared with dots representing the other transport rooms. Espersen touched one that was deep inside the asteroid, then a bright light flashed as the Asgard transporter beam moved them to that location. She then led them through a few short corridors to an observation window, and again they were very surprised at what they saw. A brightly lit cavern with mechanical creatures crawling on the walls.

"We call those Scorpions," Espersen said, seeing their curiosity. "We got the design from the Asgard, you see the arms on the front?" She asked pointing to the one closest to the window; the man inside it waved to them. "They use transporter beams to extract the material: one beam is keyed to just get the desired mineral, in this case its naquadah, while the other arm gets everything else. Then it's all beamed to storage, near the surface."

She explained some of the technical specifications of the Scorpions, before taking them to the next area, which was the factories. She led them through a series of very large rooms, containing assembly lines that produced everything they would need for the various ships to be constructed here. "With the use of the Asgard transporter beams we can replicate almost anything we need, as long as we have the right materials," She said.

"Can't the transporter beams just make the materials out of energy?" Teyla asked.

"Sure, we can even have it say something on the side, like "I drained an entire Zed-P.M. to make this coffee mug," How's that?" Rodney asked, sarcastically. But seeing Teyla scowl at him, he realized he was being an ass. "Sorry, the transporters work by converting matter to energy and then back again, and with the proper raw materials, the transporter can create almost anything we need. The Asgard have refined this process to use a reasonable amount of power. They can even rearrange the atomic structure of most of the lighter elements. But to start with energy and convert it into matter, would be insanely wasteful. And when it comes to the heavier elements like: uranium, plutonium, naquadah, trinium, and neutronium, we can't synthesize them, they have to be mined."

"Exactly," Espersen said, continuing the tour. "Currently those are the materials we're short on, and though the S.G.C. has been increasing our supply, they still can't keep up."

"Can we go see the ships now?" Ronon asked, bored with this.

"Absolutely," Espersen said. "That's the next stop."

She led them to another transporter, once they were all in the small room, she reached for the image of the asteroid and touched a dot near the biosphere. After they were transported, she led them to a balcony overlooking the ship yard.

"Whoa," Ronon exclaimed.

"No, kidding, this's the biggest room I've ever seen." Sheppard agreed.

The area under the bay door was two kilometers long by one kilometer wide, the floor was three hundred seventy meters below them. The sides of the room didn't have walls, instead there were two decks, each twenty meters thick, dividing the room into three levels. The first deck was two hundred meters from the floor, the second was a hundred meters above the first. The bottom level was for the larger ships, the middle level was for the mid-sized ships, such as the Daedalus class, and the top level was for the smaller ships like the F-302's and the new jumpers. Both sides of the room stretched out to beyond what the eye could see.

"The area under the door is just the end of the ships assembly lines," Espersen said. "Okay, I wanted you get a look at this before I took you down to the lines."

She led them to the top level first, to a line producing F-302B's. "What's different about this new version," Sheppard asked.

"There're quite a few improvements," She began. "The biggest thing is the speed, this new version is much faster. We removed the jets, aerospikes, and the rocket booster, and replaced them with two sub-lights. Similar to the new Hyper Jumpers sub-light engines, but with some differences: they've been modified to accelerate very fast, the tradeoff is that they can only reach ten percent the speed of light. And even though we've upgraded the inertial dampeners the pilot's going to feel some G-forces."

"Next is the armaments, by removing the rocket booster and without the need to carry jet fuel it freed up a lot of room. We were able to add a plasma pulse cannon, a limited shield generator that can take about two hits, and increase the payload of missiles with the use of a pattern storage device, developed from the study of Wraith, Ancient, and Asgard technologies."

"How many does it hold," Sheppard asked.

"Eight in the storage device plus the four on the wings," Rodney said. "When you fire one, a new one will automatically rematerialize in its place."

"You knew about this?" Sheppard asked.

"Who do you think invented it," Rodney said.

"I assumed that it was Col. Carter," Sheppard said teasing him.

"Oh, ha-ha very funny," Rodney said.

"What about the Hyperdrive," Sheppard asked, wanting to get back to the ship.

"It's still there," Espersen said. "It still can't make extended trips though Hyperspace, but we have perfected the short hop."

"And lastly, it now has a mark III naquadah generator to power all systems except the Hyperdrive, which still uses a naquadria generator. Now, are there any questions before we move on," She asked.

She then led them past the lines producing the Hyper Jumpers to the completely new fighter. "This is the F-307," She said. "It's a light-weight fast-attack interceptor."

This new fighter resembled a Wraith dart, though it didn't have any organic parts. The wings were very long and skinny, extending along the fuselage past the cockpit, ending in two squared points at the front.

"As you can see, this was designed to fit through the Stargate," Espersen said. "To accomplish that, we had to limit the size: It has one sub-light engine, though it's just as fast and maneuverable as the F-302B. We also had to reduce the armaments: it has a plasma pulse cannon, and two wing mounted missiles plus eight in storage. It doesn't have any railguns or a Hyperdrive. It does have the shield generator though, and since this is so much smaller it can take about three hits before it's depleted. Which is good because this has much less armor.

Next, she took them to the middle level, were they built the BC-304's; the 305's, and the 306's, which was a Cargo Hauler.

"We already know about the 304's, and Cargo Hauler is self-explanatory, so just tell us about the 305's," Sheppard said.

"Very well," Espersen said. "The 305 is a multi-role vessel: its primary use will be as a scout, secondary function is a heavy bomber, but can be utilized to fulfill any number of uses. It has three decks, it's approximately fifty meters in length, thirty meters wide, and fourteen meters tall. It may be small, but it's still a heavy weight with thick armor plating, plus an extra layer of ablative hull armor, and an Asgard shield. So it can take a hit, and with four rail gun turrets, six large plasma pulse cannon turrets, one Asgard plasma beam, and six Reapers for a start, it can dish them out. It also has an Asgard computer core and transporter, and a cloak. The Hyperdrive is only interstellar, but the sensors are the most advanced we have."

After answering any questions they had, she took them to the bottom level.

"This is where we're building the largest Earth ship to date," Espersen began. "The SC-308, it will be a supercarrier, but as you can see it has a while before it's complete." She said pointing to the frame of the ship. "When it's finished it will be over a kilometer in length, it will carry hundreds of fighters, and more weapons then I can count."

"How long till it's complete," Sheppard asked.

"Oh it's got years still," Espersen said.

"Can't we use the time dilation to speed this up just a little, Rodney," Sheppard asked.

"The biggest problem is Trinium, we can't supply them with enough," Rodney began. "Even without the device they burn through a shipment before the next one arrives."

"Why not use time dilation at the Trinium mines?" Sheppard asked.

"We are, as much as we can. But that brings us to the next problem; would you want to be one of those inside the dilation field?" Rodney asked.

"Ah, I see," Teyla said. "You'd be asking people to give up their friends and family."

"Yes," Rodney said. "Because of the confidentiality of the Stargate program, if they spend more than a few years in the field, people might notice their ageing. So we only allow them three years for those that wish to see their families again, which is most of them. For those people that don't have anyone, we can relocate. But finding people with the necessary skills, no family or friends, and can get clearance from the Pentagon, is slow going. If we could find a large enough deposit of Trinium, we could just build a colony like we're doing here, and bring their families with them."

"If things with Todd work out, we should be fine to wait," Rodney said seeing the concern on Sheppard's face. "And it's not as if they're running slow, right now they're completing one F-302B per week, two F-307's per week, and one S-305 per month."

"The first 304 should roll of the line at the four month mark," Espersen added. "And we're not full speed yet."

When they sated their curiosity about the 308, Espersen took them to the last stop on the tour, the command and control center.

"Now that is impressive," Rodney said when they entered the hexagonal room through the door that took up one side. At each of the other five sides was a control station, which was a combination of Ancient, Asgard, and earth technologies. Above each station, covering the entire wall was a massive view screen/monitor.

"Yeah, that's nice," Sheppard said. "But I want to know about the defenses of this place."

"This is the most heavily fortified facility ever constructed by Earth," Espersen said. "We have multiple shield generators, hundreds of rail gun turrets and plasma pulse cannon turrets, tens of the Asgard plasma beams, and thousands of missiles."

"What do you mean by multiple shield generators?" Teyla asked. "You need more than one to cover such a large area?"

"No, we have three shields," Espersen began. "If we're attacked we can alternate between them, allowing two to recharge while the third is taking fire, or we can calibrate one to the frequency of the attacking weapons."

They had more questions but they had to get back, so they bid farewell promising to return to see the rest of the place.

* * *

"Rodney we've been wandering around down here for twenty minutes, would you please tell me what you're looking for?" Sheppard asked as they walked the deepest corridors of a building of living quarters.

"It's an anomalous energy reading," Rodney answered, but he didn't take his eyes from the scanner in his hands. "They detected it a few weeks ago, but nobody can figure out where it's coming from."

"You mean, I came with you to find a broken conduit? I should've gone with Ronon and Teyla to get something to eat," Sheppard said, when he realized what Rodney was up to. "Oh, you bet Zelenka you could find it first, didn't you?" Sheppard asked.

"It's not a broken conduit, and yes I did," Rodney replied as they entered a storage room. "It's coming from in here," He said, triumphantly.

"Uh, Rodney, I hate to burst your bubble," Sheppard said looking around the empty room. "But there's nothing here."

"Come on," Rodney said; motioning for him to follow as he walked to the far end of the room. He led them to a corner, then Rodney again used the scanner, walking along the wall waving it up and down until he found whatever he was looking for. "Ah-ha," he said smiling at Sheppard. He then pushed on a section of the wall, which slid inward, silently pivoting on a hinge at the opposite side, revealing another empty room the size of a large closet.

"Oh, I'm sorry I ever doubted you, Rodney," Sheppard said.

"What-," Rodney said, confused. "The energy reading is definitely coming from here," He said looking at the scanner again, waving it around to pinpoint the source, he stepped into the room, Sheppard following right behind. Once Rodney reached the center of the room; they heard the sound of lantean tech powering up, and then a pillar of light shot from the floor to the ceiling for a second, before resolving into the image of Myrddin.

"Major Sheppard if you're seeing this message," He began. "Then Janus's plan to save the city has succeeded, and you have returned it to Earth. Because, his plan didn't involve time travel; I allowed him to go through with it. When I learned that Dr. Weir was willing to sacrifice the rest of her life to enact it; I recorded this message, keyed to the D.N.A of those that returned to us in the time machine."

"Behind me is a room, which can't be penetrated by any known sensor," He continued. "Inside we hid everything that we couldn't allow the Wraith to get ahold of, if they ever found the city. We wanted you to have these treasures right away, but as long as the city was in the Wraith galaxy, the chance they could take them was too great."

"You are our Legacy and this is your inheritance, use it wisely." He said, then the hologram vanished.

Then they heard a loud rumbling and a vibration in their feet. The wall behind where the Hologram stood was moving to the side. The wall was a foot and half thick, it slid to the right about five feet before stopping with a thud and revealing another room. It was about four times the size of the room they were in, but this time it wasn't empty.

As they entered, the lights came on illuminating a room filled ancient technology. Most of the floor was taken up by the larger devices, shelves along the walls held the smaller objects, most of which was a mystery to them. A few shelves though, held things they did recognize. The one that caught Sheppard's eye, held five Z.P.M.'s, he looked to Rodney to see if he had noticed them. When he did he saw him holding a large crystal, about a foot and half long and three inches in diameter. It didn't seem to be that special to Sheppard, but Rodney was grinning like he had won the lottery.

"How much was that bet for, Rodney," Sheppard asked.

"What," Rodney asked, staring at the object in his hand.

"What is it?" Sheppard asked.

"A memory storage device, Rodney answered. "This probably has all the information we couldn't ever find in the cities data base."

"Such as?" Sheppard asked.

"Such as, how to make a Zed.P.M." Rodney exclaimed, heading for the door. "I have to check this out."

"Wait, where are you going?" Sheppard asked.

"To install this in the cities computer core," Rodney answered.

"Alright, but don't forget to get a team down here to catalog all this stuff. I've got to check on Todd."

* * *

Todd was already awake and standing when Sheppard and Ronon entered the isolation room, and he wasn't happy. "What have you done to me," Todd demanded. "I feel different."

"We're testing a new gene therapy on you," Ronon said simply.

Sheppard knew that Ronon was trying to antagonize the Wraith, but didn't interfere, because he was still angry with him, over the time he had taken control of the Daedalus and tried to kill the crew. Todd knew better than to think they were behind the activation of the Attero device.

Todd looked at both of them trying to read their expressions, before responding. "So you want to watch me endure a slow and agonizing death," He asked.

"That's right," Ronon said, grinning.

Sheppard grinned at Ronon's teasing, which Todd took as even more confirmation that he was dying. "I will not show you my pain," Todd said.

"We'll see about that," Ronon said, pulling out a small sharp knife.

"Okay, that's enough of that," Sheppard said. "You're not going to die, the docs already confirmed that the treatment worked the way it was meant to, while you were sleeping."

Todd looked down at his feeding hand, still strapped to his waist. Twisting it palm up and spreading his fingers, he was surprised to find the feeding organ still there. "Exactly, what is it meant to do?" He asked.

"All it did was activate your digestive system," Sheppard said. "You're the same, except for now you can eat normal food."

"Why would you do this?" Todd asked. "Just so you can question me or put me to work?"

"No, as much as we would like to keep you prisoner. We need you to take the gene therapy to the rest of the Wraith," Sheppard said.

Todd stood there a moment, stunned. "What has happened?" He asked. "What's changed to make you willing to give us such an advantage?"

"I'll try to keep this short," Sheppard began. "Until recently most of this galaxy was controlled by an alien race called the Goa'uld. They're a parasitical creature, once they infest a host they can control it completely. Using the advanced technology they scavenged from previous hosts, they convinced the primitive humans of this galaxy that they were gods, enslaving them for thousands of years. With the help of those that realized the truth, a little hard work, sacrifice, and a lot of luck, we were able to break their hold on this galaxy."

"As much as I enjoy a history lesson. What does it have to do with you helping the Wraith?" Todd asked.

"Well, these parasites were able to get to Pegasus," Sheppard said. "And it appears that they have found a new kind of host. One that has made them a bigger threat than ever before."

"We think they've been there for about four years," Sheppard continued. "We don't know how many Wraith they have infested; it seems that they were laying low to build up their forces and integrate Goa'uld and Wraith tech. But in the five weeks since we discovered them, they've destroyed: eleven hives, about thirty cruisers, and over nine ground facilities."

"In five weeks!" Todd demanded, struggling against his bonds, but stopped with a confused look on his face "Why would you want to stop them from destroying us?" He asked.

"Yeah, we would love to see the Wraith destroyed, but not if it's just to be replaced by something worse," Sheppard said. "They want their empire back, they wouldn't stop with just the Wraith. We think their plan is to finish off the Wraith, and build up their fleet, before coming after us."

"Why don't you attack them now then?" Todd asked.

"We've tried, they won't fight us," Sheppard began. "We can't locate any of their bases or track their ships in Hyperspace, and while their ships are in normal space they stay cloaked, except when attacking. And anytime we do run into them they just retreat. We realized that by making it harder for them to beat you, we could buy ourselves some time."

"How does changing our diet accomplish that?" Todd asked.

"The Goa'uld usually attack when the Wraith start to cull, and then only when it's with limited forces," Sheppard said. "Because of this we believe their fleet is small. And if the Wraith don't need to feed on humans anymore they could end their civil war and combine forces."

"Ah, it could work," Todd said.

* * *

A couple issues have been brought to my attention: first is wings on the Hyper Jumper, they are just the structure to extend the engines and weapons for use; second is the treasure they find, this was just to give some history on the Ancients, nothing they find will save the day.

I promise to follow the formula set in the shows, having the heroes win with hard work, wacky plans, and only a bit of luck.


	4. Sad Truth

"Okay, Rodney why did you have me send Todd back to Pegasus without us?" Sheppard asked turning back from the balcony, overlooking the Stargate, when it shut down after Todd, and the marines escorting him had passed through.

"What are you so worried about, we're sending him to a Wraith planet with the treatment as soon as he gets there," Rodney said. "In fact they're probably dialing right now."

"What do you got?" Sheppard asked, scowling at him.

"Just get on with it," Woolsey said.

"I've been able to access the data on the storage crystal, the Ancients had hidden a lot more of the database than I expected." Rodney said.

"Well, how much?" Sheppard asked impatiently.

"It increased the size of the database by nineteen percent," Rodney answered. "I haven't gone through all of it yet, it had some information on their more advanced tech, but most of it was their history. Going all the way back to before they left their home world, which was apparently a lot further back than we thought. I was reviewing it, staring at the point they left Altera, but it was a little confusing at first. Until, I realized that this galaxy wasn't their first stop. After leaving Altera they first settled in a very distant region of space from here, where they lived in peace for millions of years, then a group of them decided to set out again to find a new home."

"Why," Teyla asked.

"It doesn't say," Rodney answered. "I've only skimmed a summary of the history so far, and the records from that far back are very obscure, but whether it was due to conflict or just a desire to explore, it was not a rare thing to happen. They would migrate, settle, colonize, creating vast civilizations, then some would set off again to start the process over. There're thousands of records of these expansions, and they weren't short trips, each time they would travel hundreds of millions of light years. This answers some questions though, when SG-1 visited Praclarush Taonas they reported seeing a hologram of Earth, in which Antarctica had not yet reached the South Pole. That was at the very least, seventy million years ago, or more. According to this they left Altera about a hundred fourteen million years ago."

"So are there Ancients still alive out there?" Woolsey asked.

"I'm not sure," Rodney answered. "It looks like they would lose contact with each other, but I've been able to confirm a theory of Dr. Jacksons, every galaxy the Ancients went to they would seed it with primitive humans. I haven't found why," He said quickly as they all began to ask the question.

"So there could be humans everywhere in the universe?" Ronon asked.

"Yes, and Stargates," Rodney answered, grinning with excitement as he went back to looking through the new information in the database. "Oh, here it is," He exclaimed.

"What?" Sheppard asked.

"A complete list of all the Stargates in the local group," Rodney answered.

"Are you saying that there are more galaxies in the local group that have Stargates?" Woolsey asked.

"Of course," Rodney said nonchalantly as he was looking through the list, then stopped and gave him a puzzled look, "Wait, did you think it was just the Milky Way and Pegasus galaxies that had Stargates?" He asked rhetorically. "We knew that the Ancients had arrived in this galaxy at the very least thirty million years ago, before leaving for Pegasus between seven and ten million years ago. With their tech, twenty million years is more than enough time to spread to every galaxy in the local group, even if they restricted their population growth to a crawl."

"Oh, of course," Woolsey said trying to hide his embarrassment.

"Wasn't that obvious to everyone else?" Rodney asked.

Knock it off, Rodney," Sheppard chided him.

"Sorry," He said.

"Why would they have hidden this?" Woolsey asked.

"In case the Wraith ever found the city," Sheppard said. "They didn't want them to learn that there were humans outside the Pegasus galaxy."

"Exactly, had they known there was a buffet in nearly all the neighboring galaxies, they wouldn't have spent the last ten thousand years hibernating. I have no doubt that they would have been able to upgrade their hyperdrives," Rodney said.

"That also explains all the dangerous tech they left behind," Sheppard began. "Things we thought were neglected or just failures, were actually cleverly crafted traps, set up to kill Wraith had they ever found a way in."

"That sounds right," Rodney said. "Remember the device that created explosive tumors, or project Arcturus even."

"Too bad they weren't as clever fighting the Wraith as they were when it came to creating advanced tech," Sheppard said. "It's pretty obvious that they did not make good soldiers."

"What are you talking about," Rodney asked.

"Wait, did you really think they lost the war because they were outnumbered?" Sheppard asked. "They fought for a century, during which time the Wraith conquered the entire galaxy. Granted the Wraith are very powerful, but the Ancients technology was far more advanced. We've been here five years even more outnumbered, and outgunned, but with the use of some Ancient tech we've been able to bring them down quite a few pegs. I've been going over the records of the war in more detail. The Ancients thought that in order to win they needed to create better tech, more powerful weapons, bigger ships, and stronger shields, because they would always use direct assaults. It's like it never even crossed their minds to go after critical targets."

"They were very book smart, but didn't have any street smarts," Chuck interjected.

"That's it, exactly," Sheppard agreed. And it didn't take the Wraith long to learn to take advantage of that, luring them into ambush. It's the only thing that makes sense, as to how they could've lost the war."

"Oh," Rodney said deep in thought for a second, then something occurred to him. "I think I can explain why, it's like the Tollan back in the Milky Way, they lived in this galaxy for millions of years without any major conflicts. Over that much time, they lost the ability to think strategically."

"That makes sense," Sheppard said. "That or they lost on purpose," He said joking.

"Okay, we seem to have gotten of topic," Woolsey said, and everyone turned back to Rodney.

"What are those other columns on the list?" Chuck asked.

Rodney looked back to the screen, "Um, the top of the first column says Oxyg-."

"This is all very interesting," Sheppard interrupted. "But this doesn't help us right now, what did you learn about the other devices in that room?"

"I've only had time to glance at them so far, so I'm not sure what they are or what they do. What I can tell you is that it's the most advanced tech I've ever seen. I'm not going to be able to figure them out soon," Rodney said.

"Well, what about Z.P.M.'s, did you find the info on how to make them?" Woolsey asked.

Rodney's smile vanished as he said, "Yes, I did," without the excitement they would have expected from him, at finally getting the info he'd been searching for five years.

"What's wrong," Sheppard asked.

"It requires a massive machine, similar to a particle accelerator," Rodney said.

"Does it not say where they are?" Woolsey asked.

"It says where they were," Rodney answered. "Before leaving Pegasus they destroyed all of the ones there, and before going to Pegasus they destroyed all of the ones here."

"Can we build one?" Sheppard asked.

"It would take decades," Rodney said, sounding very depressed.

"What about those time changing things?" Ronon asked.

Everyone looked at Rodney with renewed excitement. "Oh, sorry I wasn't clear. It would take decades with the use of a time dilation device," He said.

"So the treasure has not helped at all, except for those Z.P.M.s," Sheppard said.

"Well, give me some more time to go through this," Rodney said, then looked back to the monitor.

Everyone started to walk away to give him some space. They got about ten feet before Rodney seemed to get real excited, and started typing real fast for a few seconds, before standing up and looked their way.

"What is it?" Sheppard asked.

"Well I don't know if it will help us right now, but we need to check these things out," Rodney answered.


	5. New Doors

"What is it?" Sheppard asked.

"Follow me," Rodney said, leading them to the transporter. Rodney stepped in and when the panel opened he scanned the screen as if searching for something. "Ah, Here it is," He said, tapping a new button in the bottom corner. The image of the city shrank down to one corner, and new images of other facilities appeared, most were flashing red, but a few were accessible. Rodney reached for one of the images.

"Wait," Sheppard said, but it was too late. The doors closed and transported Sheppard and his team.

"Sorry," Rodney said, but didn't really mean it.

The doors opened to a hallway with stone walls. "I think we're underground," Teyla said.

"This is under the Glastonbury cavern that SG-1 found a few years ago," Rodney said. "We always suspected that there was more to this place."

They walked down the short, dimly lit corridor to a small round room. Inside they found an object in the center of the room, which resembled a long range communication device, but this one was two meters tall, but it didn't have the recesses for the stones to be set in.

"What is this?" Sheppard asked.

Rodney stepped up to the device, and began to examine it. He was able to activate a holographic display, after a few minutes of study he had it. "Well it's impressive, and it explains something that we haven't been able to figure out, but it doesn't help us with our fight with the Wraith or the Goa'uld. It's a language communicator," Rodney said.

"A language communicator?" Shepard asked.

"You've noticed that most of the planets we go to people speak English?" Rodney asked. "This is why, it's based on the same tech as the long range communicator, but instead off switching the minds of a few, it influences people to speak English."

"How could it be set to English?" Sheppard asked.

Rodney was still looking through the records. "Merlin reset it to modern English when he returned to Earth, he must have gotten it from Dr. Weir, ten thousand years ago. It works by influencing the spoken language to be whatever it's set to. If people speak something else it will slowly change their speech over generations until it's reached the set point, then just keep people speaking the same thing. It has a range of ten million light years, though it looks like something is causing interference on most of Earth, and a few other areas."

"It works on everyone?" Sheppard asked.

"Oh, no it works on humans and aliens that have similar brain physiology," Rodney said.

"Okay, is that it?" Sheppard asked.

"I think so," Rodney said. "But this isn't the place I was trying to take us to."

They returned to Atlantis, and Rodney tried to tap another location on the screen, but Sheppard caught his arm. "Wait, do you have any idea of where these places are?" Sheppard asked.

"It's a short range transporter, they would have to be in this solar system," Rodney answered.

"That's what I was worried about, what if the life support is offline?" Sheppard asked.

"They wouldn't be accessible then, like these ones that are flashing red," Rodney answered. "Trust me you're going to want to see this."

"First we need to gear up, and let people know where we are going, okay," Sheppard said. "Meet back here in fifteen minutes."

* * *

When the door opened their nostrils were filled with very stale air. "Ugh, are you sure the life support is on, Rodney?" Teyla asked.

He looked at his scanner to look for power readings. "It just activated when we beamed in, but it's barely registering," Rodney answered. "Remember, most likely, no one has been here for millions of years."

"And, where is here anyway?" Sheppard asked as he stepped out of the transporter, the lights came on revealing a hexagonal room, doors on every wall, but no windows.

Rodney was tapping buttons on the scanner as he followed. "Judging by the conditions outside, I'd say we're on Mars," He said.

Sheppard stopped his exploring, and looked at Rodney for a second. "Cool," He said.

"Yeah," Rodney said. "Follow me." He led them through one of the doors to a stairwell, they went up a few flights, and walked down a short corridor, and came to a closed door.

Rodney entered a code on the key pad, and it opened. They entered a very large hexagonal room at one of the corners, the floor rose in a series of three hexagonal step platforms each one getting smaller, and high toward the center of the room. On the top platform was a chair with control panels all around it. The second platform was empty, just a one and a half meter path around the chair. The platform at the bottom had six control stations on it each one facing a wall. There was also a pathway around the outside of the room between the platforms and wall. At the bottom of each wall was a window set at a forty five degree angle, which looked down into the rooms below.

"How did you know the code, Rodney," Sheppard asked.

"I got it from the info on this place, which was in that data crystal," Rodney answered. "Didn't I tell you?" He asked jokingly.

They entered the room to explore, spreading out. The lights came on in the room, and enough made it into the rooms below for them to see what was in them.

"There's a Stargate down there," Teyla said, pointing to the window next to her.

"There's one over here to," Ronon said.

"And here," Sheppard said. "Okay, Rodney what is this place?"

"The Ancients called it "The Nexus"," Rodney answered with a huge grin. "You know how the gate network only goes to planets with Earth like atmospheres? Well, this is the hub of all the networks that go to planets with different atmospheres."

"Each one of those gates goes to a different gate network?" Teyla asked.

"Yes, each one is to a different type of atmosphere," Rodney answered. "The Ancients disabled this place before leaving for Pegasus."

Just then the lights started to fade, Rodney looked at his scanner. "The power is having issues, we can bring an alternate power supply, but we better go before the power is too low to beam us back.

* * *

Two weeks later they had stabilized the power supply with one of the Z.P.M.'s they recently discovered. It was decided that they wouldn't start exploration through the new gates, until they fully explored and repaired the Nexus facility, which shouldn't take too long, it was much smaller than Atlantis. Rodney was headed for the transporter to continue that effort when Sheppard caught him. "Hold on, something has come up," Sheppard said. "We were called to the briefing room."

They were both surprised to find Todd there. He looked different, his skin had become more white than green, and his veins weren't visible anymore. "Ah, Colonel Sheppard, and Doctor McKay it is good to see you," Todd said, and they could tell he really meant it.

"Hello, how are you?" Rodney asked, not knowing what else to do.

"I am well, thank you for asking, and how are you?" He asked.

"I-'m good," Rodney stammered. "What brings you back?"

"Yes, time is short, we should get to it," Todd said. "I was able to take the treatment back to my people, and many chose to take it."

"Really?" Sheppard asked, surprised.

"Of course," Todd began. "You may not know this, but we have always had mixed feelings for our feeding process. It provides us with many great benefits, but it's also a cage, confining us to live with humans. The treatment is freedom, allowing us to remain Wraith, but not be forced to hibernate or fight our own kind over feeding ground. That's how most of us see it anyway, however, there are a few that didn't respond to my original summons. I wasn't too concerned, I thought they would come to me for the treatment eventually or they would be destroyed by the Goa'uld. But a week ago we started to hear reports of Wraith beating back the Goa'uld. I sent some ships to look into this, what they found shouldn't be possible, somehow they have built up a sizable fleet. They haven't moved into Neo-Wraith territory yet, but they're pushing the Goa'uld back."

"What do you want from us," Ronon asked.

"We'll look into it," Sheppard said.

"Then I will take my leave," Todd said, as he stood, and walked from the room, then escorted to the Stargate.

"This doesn't sound good," Sheppard said, when Todd was out of earshot. "What do you think, Rodney?"

"That I'm not going to make it back to the Nexus for a while," He answered. "I saw it too, there was something in his manner. Todd is scared."


	6. Episode 2 Part 1

**Pegasus—Alpha-site.**

One day later.

Sheppard and his team were in the command and control room of the ever expanding Alpha-site, watching the holographic display of the Pegasus galaxy appear in front of them. They had been busy over the last two months placing cloaked spy satellites throughout the dwarf galaxy so they could keep track of the Wraith.

"Well, the image is incomplete, but you can see the territories taking shape," Rodney said. "And it looks like Todd understated the amount of Wraith that didn't want the treatment. They have divided the galaxy into three regions: the largest section is Wraith, the next largest is the Goa'uld, and the smallest is the Neo-Wraith. The Goa'uld were spreading across the galaxy, meeting with little resistance, but a week ago it changed. The Wraith were able to stop them in their tracks. They did push them back slightly, but the boarders seemed to have stabilized now."

"How?" Sheppard asked.

"I'm not, exactly, sure" Rodney answered, adjusting the hologram to highlight the Wraith territory. When it finished zooming in, tiny red images of Wraith ships began to appear. A few at first, then more, and more, and more, until there were about forty hives, and one hundred fifty cruisers. "And that's just what's in range of our satellites."

"Where did they get all those ships?" Teyla asked.

"I don't know," Rodney answered. "But in the last two weeks they've more than doubled the size of their fleet, and it's not just the number of ships that they've increased," He said, zooming in further to a single hive. Rodney scanned the hive to show the life signs, after a second the image of the hive populated with Wraith life signs throughout the ship, final count was around five thousand. "It's not fully loaded, but every hive in their space, that we can see, has as many or more, and the cruisers are fully loaded. The strange thing, is they aren't just drone soldiers, almost half are the regular males that would hatch from eggs, and would have to grow up."

"Could they have cloned them?" Brig. Gen. Shilin asked joining them at the holographic display. He had been busy with the expansion and fortification of the Alpha-site.

"Maybe, but it doesn't make sense to increase their numbers when there weren't enough humans to sustain their population as it was," Rodney answered. "That brings me to another mystery, with the increase in numbers you would think they would be culling planets to extinction, but it's been quite the opposite, they're taking very few."

"Are we sure they didn't get ahold of the treatment?" Sheppard asked.

"Yes, our sensors can detect the difference between the regular Wraith, and the Neo Wraith. They're definitely regular Wraith," Rodney answered.

"So to get some answers we're going to have to explore the areas that our satellites don't cover?" Sheppard asked.

"I'm afraid so," Rodney answered.

* * *

The next week seemed to pass very slowly, conducting the tedious work of searching for the Wraith shipyards and cloning facilities. The urgency to find them had been increasing everyday though, the Daedalus, Apollo, and the Sun Tzu were continuing the process of completing the network of spy satellites as they searched. Allowing them to get a better count of the enemy ships, which was now fifty hives, and two hundred cruisers. They put every ship they could muster into the search: Puddle Jumpers, Hyper Jumpers, and a few of the new 305 Raptor class ships. It was one of these that caught the first lead, spotting a hive enter a Nebula then vanished from all sensors once it was fully engulfed by the gas. Which is what brought Sheppard and his team there to investigate.

"The Wraith have set up a system satellites to send out false sensor readings, so that when anyone looks at the Nebula that is all they see," Rodney said, as they passed into the gas cloud.

"Can you compensate so we can see where we're going," Sheppard asked.

"It looks like the interference is directed outward, so it should clear up as we get further in," Rodney answered. They continued on in silence for a few minutes before a beeping revealed a change in sensor readings. "Whoa," Rodney exclaimed.

"What is it?" Sheppard asked.

"We're cloaked, right?" Rodney asked.

"Yes, Rodney," Sheppard answered impatiently. "What do you see."

"There are eleven hives and twenty-seven cruisers in this Nebula with us," Rodney answered.

"So this is it then?" Ronon asked. "The shipyard we've been looking for."

"I'm not sure," Rodney answered, as he continued to run sensor sweeps. "There is a void near the center of the Nebula, the sensors can't see inside."

"Is it more of the sensor camouflage?" Sheppard asked.

"No, it's not false readings, there are no readings," He answered.

"How far away is it?" Sheppard asked.

"A little over a light year," Rodney answered. "But that is also where all the Wraith are."

After a short Hyper-space jump to just outside the Wraith sensor range. They reemerged into normal space, and found themselves approaching a normal white star, but around the entire system there was what appeared to be a glass sphere.

"What is that!" Sheppard asked.

"Uh, hold on," Rodney said, running sensor scans of the void. "Sensors still can't penetrate, maybe we can get visual, passive scans," He said switching to the optical sensors.

"This is odd, even visual observations don't make sense. It's like the whole system is inside-Oh crap!" Rodney said, when he got the results from his last scan. "I thought there was something familiar about these readings, It's a time dilation field, similar to the one we discovered some years ago, made by the Ancients."

"You mean the one you got me trapped in with that invisible monster?" Sheppard asked.

"That wasn't my fault," Rodney argued. "But, yes it's very similar, which means we can't just fly though the event horizon."

"How do the Wraith get in and out?" Ronon asked.

"They could shut it off every so often," Sheppard said.

"I don't think so," Rodney said. "I don't know what the time ratio is, but most likely they're running time faster inside the field, so the star should appear to be brighter outside the field, and there should be a lot more radiation emanating from the field. So I scanned the barrier, somehow they have modified it to capture that energy. I also found a structure built into the barrier, probably a portal allowing safe passage in and out of the field, since that's where most of the Wraith ships are clustered."

"Which way?" Sheppard asked, and turned the Hyper-Jumper that direction when Rodney pointed.

"So instead of a cloning facility they are able to grow ships, and troops inside the field at a normal pace. But to us on the outside it seems to be very fast. Is that right?" Teyla asked.

"Yeah, and they probably have human colonies also," Sheppard said.

"How did they come by such a device?" Teyla asked.

Sheppard and Rodney realized together. "Todd!" they said in unison.

"That could explain why he was acting so odd." Rodney said. "He probably stole the info on that too. They could have the very same device that you were trapped in."

"We need to have a long talk with him, next chance we get," Sheppard said in such a cold voice that even Ronon was a tiny bit afraid for Todd.

By now they were within visual range of the Wraith ships, and the portal Rodney mentioned, which was wide enough for two hives to pass through side by side, and protruded out from the field approximately two kilometers, and though they couldn't see it clearly through the barrier, it extended at least that far inward. And since it was Wraith tech it very much resembled the rib cage of a monstrous sea creature.

As they maneuvered around the Wraith ships to get a better look, a large Wraith cargo ship emerged from the passage way, and headed to the closest hive.

Rodney had been scanning the mouth of the tunnel when the ship appeared, giving him a very detailed report of it. "I'm getting massive human life sign readings from that ship."

"So that's why they aren't culling other worlds as badly, they have a fast food window right here," Sheppard joked to combat the feeling of helplessness at not being able to do anything to save them.

Teyla had been watching the cargo ship, when she noticed something about the hive it was headed for. "Does that hive look different, somehow?" she asked.

Rodney directed the sensors to the hive in question. It didn't take long to see that indeed the hive was different. "Oh crap, it's a new model with minor improvements. We can't let this continue, we have to destroy their field generator before they can make more advancements."

"Oh, no kidding," Sheppard said.

They saw another ship heading for the passage, having apparently finished transferring its cargo.

Deciding to follow it back they moved in behind the Wraith vessel, Rodney keeping the sensors locked to it, in the hope he could get some readings of how the tunnel worked as it passed though. As soon as the bow of the Wraith ship breached the tunnel the sensors began receiving data, and it continued for a few seconds after the stern had passed the threshold.

"Well did you get anything?" Sheppard asked.

"Yes tons, it's going to take me days to go through it all. But it looks like the passage works by gradually changing the speed of time, making a ramp instead of a cliff, so it should be safe," Rodney answered quickly, then continued to study the new information. So engrossed was he that they had nearly reached the entrance of the tunnel-like passage when he noticed something else from the scans. "Whoa, Stop, Stop!" He yelled.

Sheppard, hearing the concern in Rodney's voice, acted quickly cutting the sub-light engines, and using maneuvering thrusters flipped the vehicle over, one hundred eighty degrees so they were pointed back the way they came, then punched the sub-lights back on, rapidly slowing the ship to a stop inches from the threshold, then blasting them clear. Even with the inertial dampeners they were smashed into their chairs for a second.

"Are we good, Rodney?" Sheppard asked, having an idea of what scared him.

"Yeah," Rodney answered, when the blood returned to his head, and he could see again. "The passage has sensors that could detect us even cloaked."

"That's what I thought," Sheppard replied.

"Wow, that was very impressive flying," Teyla said, her stomach feeling very uneasy. "Please don't do it again."

"Can they detect us on the other side?" Ronon asked.

"It's doubtful," Rodney said.

"Why don't we make a run for it then?" Ronon asked.

"We might be able to make it through before they close the portal, destroying us." Rodney said. "But they would know we were here."

"He's right, to have any chance at destroying the time device, we have to get in there undetected. We need a plan," Sheppard said as he took them back the way they came.


	7. E2P2

**Pegasus—Alpha-site.**

From the minute Sheppard and his team had returned with news of the Wraith's new advantage, the base had been a frenzy of activity. Recalling all the ships involved in the search to prepare them for the coming battle, and sending a message to Earth informing them of the situation was just to start, they also sent the Daedalus to collect Todd.

"All ships have been recalled, and are now being resupplied, and fully armed," Gen. Shilin said to the group seated on the outside edge of the U-shaped table in the large rectangular conference room, which consisted of Sheppard's team, every other team leader, every ship commander, and all senior staff of the base.

"Why can't we leak the location of the base to the Goa'uld, and let them take care of it?" Col. Padovani, commander of one of the 305 Raptor class vessels, which he had named "Mighty Mouse", asked.

"There's not enough time, plus there's no guaranty that they could get the job done, and even if they did, we can't risk them getting ahold of the time dilation tech," Rodney said. "I'm afraid we have to do this ourselves."

"Okay," Padovani agreed. "What's the plan then?"

"We need to confer with Todd, to work out some of the details. He should be here by now," Rodney said impatiently.

They discussed other matters while they waited for him to arrive, all the while Rodney was getting more and more agitated.

"What's wrong, Rodney?" Teyla asked.

"I had the Apollo drop off a spy satellite inside the nebula, so I could keep an eye on the situation," Rodney began. "I've been able to get more detailed scans, I've determined that they only have the two cargo ships that we saw, and by measuring the time spent inside, and outside the field I've been able to estimate the ratio at only four hundred to one."

"Only," Sheppard said. "That's already faster than the one I was trapped in."

"I don't think you understand the danger we are facing, just how fast the field can get," Rodney began. "Didn't you read SG-1's mission report of when they used an Asgard time dilation device to save themselves from an Ori vessel?" He asked.

"Yes," Sheppard said.

"So the ratio for that field was approximately twenty billion to one," Rodney said. "It could be that they don't have sufficient power to run a field of that size any faster, or maybe it's a lack of understanding, but either way they seem to be overcoming the issue, because it's getting faster."

"How can you tell?" Teyla asked.

"Because the time it takes for the cargo ships to enter, and return is decreasing, leading me to conclude that time is getting faster inside the field," Rodney answered. "So far they have only increased the speed a little at a time, but should they make a breakthrough, by the time we get back we could be facing an enemy with technology far beyond our understanding."

Just then a flash of light signaled the return of Col. Caldwell with Todd, and two other young Neo Wraith in tow. Caldwell left them standing on the inside area of the table, and took his seat.

"It's about time!" Rodney complained. "What the he-never mind, we don't have time for that," He said.

"Very well," Todd said. "How can I help you?"

"Why didn't you side with the other Wraith?" Sheppard asked bluntly, realizing the need to hurry.

"What makes you so sure that we didn't?" Todd countered.

"Because you never would've warned us that they were gaining the upper hand, if you were on their side," Sheppard answered. "So, why didn't you?"

Todd took a deep breath before answering. "There were side effects to your treatment, that made it undesirable to all other Wraith."

"You were supposed to inform us of any side effects immediately," Dr. Beckett spoke up at hearing the news. "Why didn't you?"

"We didn't notice right away," Todd began. "The changes were very subtle, taking weeks to become apparent. It started with the occasional flashback of feeding, which isn't an issue, just unusual. But as time went on we began to feel sick, and the memories became more persistent, until most of our time was spent dwelling on past feeding's. We began to think that maybe we weren't as free from feeding as we had hoped, and that our bodies were telling us that we needed to feed." He stopped there, hesitant to share the next part of the story with present company.

"Go on," Sheppard said.

"I decided to test it, so I found a human in one of the stasis cocoons to feed on. I turned off the cocoon, and woke the man, but when I reached my arm back so he would know death was upon him—," his voice caught in his throat for a few seconds, before he continued, "I couldn't do it." He said with a mixture of emotions creeping into his voice, and playing across his face that they couldn't identify.

"Impossible, there's no way that our treatment had any effect on the feeding organs," Beckett said.

"I don't think that's what he's saying," Sheppard said.

"No, that's not it," Todd said turning his back to the other Wraith, and looking at the floor before continuing. "I have fed on human's countless times before without hesitation, feeling nothing but the need to quench the fire of hunger. But when I saw the terror on the man's face, something was different, instead of the thrill of excitement at knowing my hunger was about to be sated, the sick feeling in my chest became overpowering, draining my strength away. I-I just stood there for a moment staring at him. I found myself wondering who this person was, what he was like, if he had a family, I realized that I didn't want to feed on him, so I put him back in the cocoon." Todd stopped again, having trouble dealing with emotions that he had never felt before. "I had kept my mind open to the others throughout the encounter, I expected they would be disgusted at the perverted thoughts they saw, and heard from my mind."

Sheppard looked at the other two Wraith that had come with him, and noticed that they were also staring at the floor to avoid looking at Todd. Their manner seemed to be more respectful rather than one of contempt.

"But when I reached for their thoughts," Todd continued. "I found that they had all experienced similar feelings."

"Let me see if I understand this correctly," Rodney said. "Wraith have never experienced "guilt" before?"

All three Wraith looked at him with a mixture of emotions playing on their faces: surprise, anger, despair, a hint of awe, and the strongest was shame.

"Guilt isn't the only human weakness that we've been plagued with since the treatment, but that would explain why the very young aren't suffering from that symptom," Todd said waving toward the other two. "Though extremely rare, it's our custom to exterminate any Wraith that exhibit any one of them." He paused again squeezing his eyes shut as if holding back tears, then taking a deep breath before continuing. "But every Wraith that took the treatment has the condition, and we all want to live."

"Your ashamed of this?" Beckett asked.

Todd glared at him as he roared. "Of course I'm ashamed, to sympathize with human's is one of the worst sins a Wraith can commit!"

"So the other Wraith will kill you if they get the chance?" Sheppard asked once he had calmed down.

"Yes," Todd answered simply.

"Could I get you to step into the hall for a moment?" Shilin asked the Wraith.

Once the door closed behind them, he turned to Dr. Beckett, and asked. "Is it possible that our treatment did this?"

"Oh, absolutely," Beckett began. "I could site many studies back on Earth where the alteration of a single gene to change a physical characteristic had an impact on behavior. And we altered several to get the desired result, it could be any one or a combination, that caused it."

"Okay, so it's possible that the treatment could affect their personalities," Shilin accepted. "But how can we be certain that their telling the truth about the changes?"

"They're not lying," Teyla said. "Their new emotions must be disrupting their mental control, because I'm not even trying, and I can easily see, and hear their thoughts, and the only thing that Todd's ashamed of is not feeling ashamed of sympathizing with that human. They're very confused right now; in fact, he didn't realize that he was feeling "guilt" until Rodney named it. They're going to need our help learning to deal with them, but we could probably use their help as well."

"You think they can be trusted?" Shilin asked.

"Yes," Teyla said.

"What do you think, Colonel?" Shilin asked looking at Sheppard.

"I think we could use their help," Sheppard said with a slight shrug.

"What about you, Ronon?" Shilin asked.

"I think we can trust them," Ronon said to the utter amazement of everyone in the room, including himself.

"Well, I think we all knew what he was going t-," Rodney started. "Wait, what did you say?"

"I think we can trust them. I couldn't say why, it's just that when I look at them, I don't hate them." Ronon said shrugging.

"I'll be right back, I need to go change my pants," Padovani joked.

"No kidding, I say we give them a chance." Shilin said motioning for the guards to bring the Wraith back. "Teyla signal if they lie or hold anything back."

Once the Wraith returned to the center of the room, they got right to it.

"Did you steal any information on time dilation devices from us?" Sheppard asked directly, knowing that even if he lied, Teyla would see the truth.

"No," Todd answered confused by how direct the questioning had become.

Sheppard and Rodney both looked to Teyla, who nodded that Todd was being truthful. And since they hadn't been able to find any evidence that Todd had ever accessed the information on the time dilation device. They were confident that Todd hadn't caused the problem.

"What do you know about the Wraith's new base?" Sheppard asked.

"Nothing," Todd answered.

After confirming with Teyla one last time that he could be trusted, they explained the situation, to which he volunteered to help.

"I can get us inside," He said.

They spent the next half hour working out the details.


	8. E2C3

Sheppard and his team were on the bridge of the Daedalus leading their small fleet back to the Wraith's base. They had just exited hyper-space, and cloaked, far outside the Wraith sensor range to be safe.

"Oh crap," Rodney said looking at the sensor readings.

"What is it?" Sheppard asked.

"In the few hours that we've been gone, the Wraith fleet has increased to nineteen hives, and approximately sixty cruisers," Rodney answered.

"Don't worry about that right now, our mission is to destroy the time dilation device," Sheppard said. "Once we've done that we'll take out what ships we can."

"Right," Rodney agreed, but he still looked apprehensive.

"Okay, let's get to the Hyper-jumper," Sheppard said.

"Good luck, Colonel," Caldwell called after them.

"You too," Sheppard said as he left the bridge.

* * *

Minutes later, SGA-1 was escorting the three Neo Wraith to a Hyper-Jumper in the port hangar. Todd found the new vessel very curious, it resembled an Ancient gate ship, but was twice the length at sixteen meters, and a little bigger around at four and a half meters. "Where did you find that?" He asked.

"We built it," Sheppard answered pulling a remote from his pocket, pointing it at the ship, and pushed a button. Todd watched as the last four meters of the ship split in half, and slid forward to either side of the fuselage, revealing the rear hatch. The two halves reshaped themselves into thick wing like structures, that swept forward and had a slight downward curve. There were sub-light engines at the base of the wing where it met the fuselage, various weapon attachments along the length, and a cannon placed at the end.

Seeing that Todd was impressed, Rodney decided to give him a run down on the vehicle. "With the wings extended it's about twelve meters wide, and twelve meters long. With the new sub-light engines, it can get to a quarter of the speed of light."

"Next is weapons," He continued. "Being that this is a military craft it is much more heavily armed than the Ancient gate ship, though it doesn't have drones, but we just developed these," He said pointing to the four small missiles attached to the underside of the wing. "They're a little bigger, less maneuverable, and the plasma field they emit isn't as powerful, but they're faster, and have a bigger bang. They're called Stingers, they've replaced all the missiles on the fighter craft as well. Between the engines and the Stingers, we have a railgun, in the mid-section of the wing we have small plasma pulse cannon turrets, on both top and bottom, and the long ellipses pontoons on the end of each wing contains sensors and shield emitters. Our main weapon is a small Asgard plasma beam in the nose, it's about half as powerful as the ones on our battle cruisers."

Rodney led the way into the ship through the rear hatch, which had opened while the wings were forming. The inside of the craft was very similar in layout to the Puddle Jumper, but with a lot more room. It had the benches along the walls in the back with drawers containing various equipment, and above these were a couple fold-down cots on each side. Forward of these on the port side was the most appreciated part of the craft, an enclosed restroom. Opposite the restroom on the starboard side was a weapons locker. Beyond these was the door, which led to the front half of the ship. Just beyond the door was a small laboratory with the most advanced computers the Tau'ri had created. There weren't any keyboards, instead all the monitors were touch screens. At the very front, the layout was almost the same, the DHD was in the center, flight control was on the port side, sensor control on the starboard. But in this craft the communications station was behind and to the right at a forty-five-degree angle from the sensor station. Similarly, on the port side the tactical station was behind and to the left.

"Some other systems we have over the Ancient gate ship," Rodney continued. "Is a short-range hyper-drive, short-range transporter, shield, tractor beam, and a matter storage system or MaSS that holds another one hundred stingers."

"Whoa, how can it hold so many?" Sheppard asked.

"The storage capacity is determined by mass," Rodney said. "The AIM-120A missiles we had on the F-302's were quite large. The stingers are a fraction of that size."

"It sounds like the matter storage device on the darts," Todd said with a questioning look.

"Yes, ours were developed from the study of the Wraith version," Rodney said.

Todd nodded slightly, but didn't say anything. Teyla turned her face from him to hide the grin she got from hearing his thoughts, he was starting to realize that he and all Wraith had grossly underestimated the Tau'ri.

Sheppard took his place at flight control, Rodney at sensors, Teyla at communications, and Ronon at tactical. Todd and the two young Neo Wraith took three of the four remaining seats behind the crew.

Just then they got the signal that it was time to go. Sheppard working the controls lifted the craft off the hangar deck, and forward out into open space. Todd had informed them that if they latched onto the cargo vessel in the right spot, the detection field wouldn't be able to see them when they passed through.

"Somethings not right," Rodney said. "By my calculations they should have a lot more ships."

"Yes," Todd said. "I'm listening to their thoughts; it seems that once they stopped the Goa'uld advance they slowed production."

"Oh, that's good," Rodney said.

"No, it isn't," Todd said. "They have redirected their efforts into improving their technology."

"That's what I was afraid of," Rodney said.

"Okay, hang on," Sheppard said as he slowly moved their tiny ship into position, between the massive sub light engines of the Wraith cargo ship. The craft stopped a few inches short, then four robotic arms reached out with hands that looked like large robotic gecko feet, and secured themselves to the hull of the cargo ship. "Now we wait."

"It won't be long," Todd said. "They've just finished unloading."

Seconds later they were headed toward the passage.

"Is this going to hurt, like last time?" Sheppard asked as the front of the cargo ship passed the threshold.

"I don't know, we'll find out soon enough though," Rodney said, bracing himself as they also passed the threshold. A second later he opened his eyes, and looked around to find everyone staring at him.

"I don't feel anything," Ronon said.

"I don't either," Teyla said.

Rodney was working the touchscreen controls of his station, checking the sensor readings. "Well we're almost half way through, and it's already three hundred times faster, and still increasing."

"How can you tell what the ratio is, when we are inside the field but not outside?" Sheppard asked.

"An artificial time dilation field does not affect all dimensions, by comparing the speed of our time to that of certain sub-space layers I can determine the difference," Rodney answered. "You realize we won't be able to use the hyper-drive inside here, right?"

"Yes, Rodney," Sheppard answered as they exited the passage.

Rodney wasn't really listening for an answer. He was too excited to get a look at things on the inside of the barrier. Which is the first thing he scanned, the energy barrier. "How did they come up with that?" He wondered to himself.

"What?" Sheppard asked.

"The time dilation energy barrier that surrounds the entire solar system. I couldn't figure out how they could power such a large field or block all solar energy from the star," Rodney began. "It would appear that the barrier is absorbing the solar energy to power itself."

"So, you figured it out, what's the problem?" Sheppard asked.

"Because it's a level of technology that is far beyond Wraith understanding," Todd answered for him.

"Yes, which leads me to conclude that there is more to this time dilation device than the last one we encountered," Rodney said.

"No, Rodney, we're here to destroy it, not find you a new toy. I don't care how advanced it is." Sheppard said.

Rodney begrudgingly agreed. "Fine."

"What's the current ratio?" Sheppard asked to distract him from the subject.

"It's up to eight hundred to one," Rodney answered then began running detailed scans for the location of the target. "Whoa."

"What?" Sheppard asked.

"I'm detecting humans all over the system, billions of them," Rodney answered. "There are colonies, stations, and mining facilities all over the system. And it's not Wraith tech."

"What do you mean, it's not-," Sheppard started to say, but then something caught his attention. "We're slowing down."

Rodney checked the sensors. "Confirmed," He said.

They had expected the Wraith ship to continue to the inhabited planet or planets, and since it's sub-light engines were much faster than their own they were going to stay attached until then.

"Did they detect us?" Teyla asked looking at Todd.

"I don't think so," He replied.

"I don't think so either," Rodney said. "I'm picking up a station directly ahead."

"Then there's no point in staying attached to this thing," Sheppard said as he retracted the legs holding them to the cargo vessel, and moved them to get a look at the station. They were all stunned into silence for a few seconds when they caught sight of the massive structure before them. From the organic look of the station, which resembled a sand bur, they could tell that it was Wraith made.

"That's impressive," Sheppard said.

"That's not the word I would use," Rodney said staring at the monstrous facility.

"Why, what would you say?" Sheppard asked.

Rodney, feeling a little self-conscious in the company of the Wraith, didn't answer.

"Terrifying," Teyla answered for him, so he would know he wasn't alone. Everyone's silence was confirmation that they felt the same way, which instead of being comforting only served to heighten his apprehension.

Rodney decided to concentrate on his work, he had been running scans of the obsidian-black station. "It's nine times bigger than a hive, the hull is just as dense as a super-hive but a lot thicker, and there're a lot of fire power on that thing."

"Can it detect us?" Sheppard asked remembering that the super-hive, that this thing resembled, could.

"No, it's power generation is only slightly greater than normal," Rodney said. "Since it doesn't need to move, they can grow the hull that thick without the need for massive amounts of power. Though it probably took them a long time to get it to that point, but it was probably worth it, because I don't know of any weapon that could penetrate that hull."

"Great! Is the device on that station?" Sheppard asked.

"No," Rodney answered after checking the sensor readings. "I can't pinpoint it's exact location, but it is definitely near the center of the system. I should be able to do better the closer we get."

"Okay," Sheppard said. "Everybody get comfortable, without hyper-drive it's going to take us two days to get there."

Rodney continued to run scans of the station as they were passing by. "This is odd, I'm only detecting a handful of Wraith on the station, but tens of thousands of humans."

"Yes, and there not in stasis pods," Todd said. "They appear to be working with the Wraith."

"Worshippers?" Ronon asked.

"We can't tell for sure, we have to be careful so they don't notice us listening," Todd answered. "But they don't seem to fear the Wraith at all, which would be normal even for worshippers."

"I'm also detecting a lot of that alien tech inside the station," Rodney said. "I think it's ships, there's one on the move out of the main hangar."

They all watched as a rectangular shaped vessel about twice the size of a Daedalus class emerged from the station, and turned toward the center of the system.

Rodney immediately began running very detailed scans of this new ship. "It looks like a cargo shuttle, very light armor, a couple low yield plasma pulse cannons, and a very limited sensor array."

"Is that a human made vessel?" Sheppard asked.

"I think so, it doesn't have anything even resembling Wraith tech," Rodney answered. "This place gets stranger by the minute, why would they let the humans they feed on develop technologically this far?" He asked rhetorically.

"How fast is that thing?" Sheppard asked.

"I'm not sure yet, they have an odd propulsion setup. The sub-light engines operate on the same principles as ours, but seem to be very primitive. They would be slow, and inefficient. The odd part is that they have them tied in to their inertial dampeners with another device that I have never seen before. Based on the engines though, I'd say they could get to fifteen percent the speed of light." Rodney answered.

At that moment, the odd ships' sub-light engines flashed brightly as it vanished.

"What was that, Rodney?" Sheppard asked.

Rodney took a second to examine the sensor readings before answering. "Um—it looks like I had the decimal off by one place," He said embarrassed.

"Wait, you mean that thing is traveling at," Sheppard started.

"One hundred fifty percent the speed of light," Rodney finished for him.


	9. E2C4

*****Sorry for taking so long to update. This is my first attempt at writing, so my updates might take awhile sometimes, but I promise to keep at it.*****

* * *

 **Apollo, 1 Hour before SGA-1 entered the passage.**

The Apollo had been sent to the Wraiths secret base ahead of the rest of the fleet, to get started on the first phase of the plan. Which was to attach a reaper mines, a mark IX with a cloak, to as many Wraith ships as possible.

Ever since the Goa'uld had demonstrated the ability to detect the reaper missiles, the Tau'ri scientists and engineers had been working diligently to figure out how the cloak was vulnerable. The consensus was that they were detecting the power emissions from the sub-light engine. Since then they had been trying to either improve the cloak or develop a new delivery system.

They decided to use a MRCV mining/repair/construction vehicle or scorpion as they had been nicknamed. The vehicle did indeed look like a robotic scorpion, having eight legs, the two large arms with pincer-like hands, and the long-segmented tail. The cockpit was at the front, between the two large arms. Both the arms and tail had the same equipment, which included a tractor beam, laser drill, and matter relocation/reorganization system or MaRS beam. The pincers also had the ability to transform into robotic hands. In the main body, there was a small cargo bay for raw materials, to be used for construction. At the end of the main body under the tail, there was a small sub-light engine.

The scorpions had to be upgraded to accomplish the task required of them. So, they were provided with a cloak, stealth armor plating that dampened all energy emissions, and a MaSS device, which held thirty reaper mines.

Although they weren't certain that these new Wraith ships could detect the energy emissions through the cloak, and even though the engine on the scorpions were much smaller than the one on the reaper missile, they weren't willing to take the chance. So, it was decided that the engine couldn't be used within one hundred kilometers of any Wraith vessel.

Cpt. Duncan Campbell was one of Apollo's newest fighter pilots, and a member of the air force academies first graduating class to be trained with the use of the memory transfer device. With the knowledge and experience of the best pilots in the world being transferred to them in a series of treatments over a period of months, they had destroyed every record set in the academy.

He and two other pilots were nearly finished with the easy part of the mission, which was the fifteen-hives positioned around the entrance to the passage. Duncan was maneuvering around his fifth hive to reach the best location to plant a reaper mine. Once there he opened the bomb bay doors on the underside of the scorpion, and a small robotic arm lowered the two-meter nuke into position. The reaper mine secured itself to the hive with a combination of electromagnetics, small self-tapping bolts, and cold welding. When that was complete, the bomb's own cloak activated.

The eight legs gently pushed off the hull of the hive, Duncan waited until he was a few meters away before activating maneuvering thrusters. He was excited for the challenge the cruisers presented. For, while the hives were far more powerful, they weren't moving, making it very easy to plant mines on them. The cruisers, however were patrolling the inside of the nebula, moving at speeds far greater than the scorpions could achieve. As soon as he reached one hundred kilometers he punched his sub-light engine to full power, shooting the vehicle forward with an immense burst of speed. Fortunately for the pilot the scorpion had been equipped with the most advanced inertial dampeners the Tau'ri had created, making the g-force he felt negligible.

Even at twenty percent the speed of light, it took him half an hour to reach one of the cruiser patrol routes. For most of their path through the nebula they would be travelling at nearly their maximum sub-light, making it impossible for the scorpions to land on them. Luckily though, at certain points on their route they would slow down, sometimes it was the density of the nebula gases interfering with their sensors, sometimes it was to make course corrections. But the one that best suited their needs though was when they would report in as they passed by the hives, in order for them to use their telepathy, they would have to slow down to under twenty five percent of light to keep the time dilation effects to a minimum.

As he got closer his sensors detected a cruiser nearing the slowdown point, and he was close enough to catch this one. He adjusted his flight path so that he was directly ahead of the cruiser moving in the same direction. Once he reached his maximum speed of sixty-one thousand kilometers per second he shut down his sub-light engine to avoid detection, and though the cruiser was slowing down it didn't take long for it to catch up to him. He watched the speed of the cruiser intently, for him to pull this off it had to slow to sixty-five thousand km/s, any faster and he would most likely be smashed into their hull. When the cruiser was only twenty thousand kilometers away, it's speed stabilized at sixty-four thousand km/s.

He had positioned himself so the cruiser would pass only seven meters below him. With only seconds before the vessel overtook him, the computer was in control of firing the three grapplers, which was a spear attached to a cable made from a material developed by the Asgard, similar to spider silk, capable of stretching to seven times its original length before breaking.

This was the most dangerous part of the mission, if the cruiser altered its course in the slightest it would obliterate the scorpion, and the wraith might not realize that they hit anything.

The computer fired the grapplers when the cruiser was still far behind, but as the clamps reached their target locations the ship had coved the distance allowing the clamps to secure themselves to the hull. To cushion the acceleration the cables continued to be spit out at a tremendous speed, that combined with their ability to stretch allowed the scorpion to smoothly match the cruisers speed. Once the speed equalized, Duncan began reeling the cables up, pulling the scorpion to the hull of the cruiser. The had stretched to a few times their original length, but by running an electrical current though it, as it was recoiled, it would contract to its original shape.

It took a few minutes for the scorpion to reach the cruiser and disconnect the clamps, but only seconds to plant the mine then push off again and head back to the starting point to wait for the next cruiser.

When he reached the standby position, his sensors detected four more hives emerge from the passage way. Evan though they expected this to happen, their orders were to stick with the cruisers, for it would take too long to get back to the hives.

Another five minutes and the Daedalus with the rest of the fleet had arrived.

* * *

 **SGA-1, WRAITH TIME-DILAION BASE**

They continued to stare after the inexplicably fast ship for a few seconds.

"How can that primitive ship be that fast, Rodney?" Sheppard asked.

"Hold on," Rodney said, as he studied the extremely detailed scans they got of the ship. After only a few minutes he had it, and mumbled to himself, "Why didn't I think of that?"

"Think of what?" Sheppard asked.

"Their type of FTL drive," Rodney answered. "It just goes to show that necessity is the mother of all invention."

"The drive shifts the vessel out of phase with space-time," Rodney continued. "The SGC has encountered similar technologies, one time it was a crystal skull that shifted Daniel Jackson out of phase with matter in our space-time. Another time it was Merlin's mobile computer which shifted colonel's Carter, and Mitchell out of phase. From their experiences, we realized that the laws of physics are a little different in those dimensions. Being out of phase they could pass through solid matter, but they didn't fall through the floor, leading us to realize that matter in those dimensions isn't affected by gravity. In essence, it has zero mass, which allows it to achieve such high speed, and not have the time-dilation effects."

"Isn't that what the inertial dampeners do, reduce our mass?" Sheppard asked.

"Yes, but they don't get it all the way to zero," Rodney answered, as he continued studying the scans of the FTL drive. "I was able to get a perfect scan of their drive, and as impressive as it is, it's still very primitive. I mean, we have more advanced versions of most of the individual components, and the ones that we don't have counterparts for, I can still make better versions," He said as he moved back to one of the computer stations at rear of the compartment, and began working on that very project.

"Are you saying that you can copy their FTL drive," Sheppard asked.

"No, I'm not going to copy it, I'm going to make a better one," Rodney answered.

"So, will it only work inside this time-dilation bubble?" Teyla asked.

"No, it will work outside in normal time as well," He said as he continued his work.

They continued the long, slow journey to the inner planets. While Rodney worked with the mostly Asgard computer, which allowed him to come up with a prototype design in only two hours. Using the MaRS beam, and the raw materials stored on the ship, he produced a new FTL drive for the Jumper, and in one more hour had it all tied in to the Jumpers systems and ready for a test run.

"How will this affect our cloak?" Sheppard asked.

"I have set it up so that the cloak will deactivate at the same time the FTL drive activates, and vice versa," Rodney answered.

"Okay, let's give it try," Sheppard said.

"Starting at ten percent power to the engines," Rodney said as he activated the drive.

They didn't feel anything. "Is it working?" Teyla asked.

"Yes, we are at twenty-five percent the speed of light," Rodney said excitedly. "With only a tenth of the power we are at our maximum speed."

"The sub-light engines are using a tenth of the power, but what is the FTL drive using?" Sheppard asked.

"Uh, it's using about a quarter of what the Hyper-drive would use, but that is its maximum usage, it won't get any higher, and that's a fraction of what the other ships was using," Rodney answered.

"All right, Rodney you've done good," Sheppard admitted, smiling excitement himself.

"Increasing to thirty percent," Rodney called out.

The ride continued to smooth.

"Seventy-five percent of C," Rodney called.

Rodney continued to increase the power until he got to eighty percent, which got them to twice the speed of light, and decided to hold it there. "With a little fine tuning, I think I could get the speed even higher."

"Well, this is good enough for now," Sheppard said. "At this rate, we will make it to the inner planets in a little over five hours."


End file.
